


Nothing's Like Before

by AllonsyBatch



Series: Nothing's Like Before [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-06-30 09:03:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19849924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllonsyBatch/pseuds/AllonsyBatch
Summary: AU taking place right after Terra-Xehanort is defeated and Terra comes back.  Terra and Aqua are forced to figure out their new lives living with a bunch of teenage Keyblade wielders, and nothing is ever going to be the same.   Eventual Aqua/Terra.  Sora/Riku if you squint.  Basically, Fragmentary Passage left me with Feels and I'm not happy about it. Enjoy my pain.





	1. Prologue: A Return

**Author's Note:**

> (Kairi is okay in this AU, and they all go back to live at Radiant Garden.)

The bright flash of light was enough to make everyone hold their hands up to the sky, the echoing cry of what had been Xehanort lingering across the vast wasteland of desert. When the dust began to settle, in his place was a familiar figure-his hair now the soft brown Aqua and Ven remembered rather than the steely white. 

“Terra?” Ven gasped, watching the heap on the ground lie still, taking only a tentative step forward. He and Sora stood as Aqua lunged forward, shouting Terra’s name just as the figure began to stand.

“Terra? Please tell me it’s you…” Aqua nearly sobbed, reaching him just as he rose shakily to his feet. Her hands grasped either side of his face, willing him to open his eyes and not be the garish yellow she feared. 

Blue. Blue like the sky above the home they had shared for over a decade together before this mission had pulled them apart-before the exam that began the end of them.

“A…qua?” He stammered, his voice lower and raspier than she remembered, nothing like the screaming lunatic they had just defeated. His eyes darted back and forth across her face in confusion, as if he didn’t remember saving her and Ven just moments before.

“Is…that him?” Sora asked Ven from where they stood a few feet away, the blond boy’s face lighting up as he saw Terra open his eyes. 

“It’s him…Terra, I-“

Ventus stopped speaking, because before he could finish his sentence, he saw something he had never seen before. HIs brow knitted in confusion, and he could hear Sora beside him making a similarly bewildered noise. 

Terra and Aqua were kissing. And not just kissing-the kind of kissing that made Ven wonder how they were breathing and whether or not they were going to suck each other’s faces off.

“Um…do they…do this often?” Sora asked from beside Ven, one eyebrow raised as the two continued to be wrapped around each other like there was no one else in the world, let alone two teenage boys a few feet away watching them.

“A-HEM,” Ven cleared his throat loudly, his face a mix of utter confusion and slight bemusement as Terra and Aqua jumped apart from each other like they were electrocuted. 

“Ven…I,” Terra began, taking a step toward him before Ven raised his hands up in defense between them.

“I’m…fine with just a hug, man,” Ven joked, and the moment he saw Terra’s eyes roll he knew it really was his best friend, the third and final piece to their puzzle back at last. Ven allowed himself to get pulled into a hug, Terra’s strong arms wrapping all the way around him.

“I kept my promise,” he whispered into Terra’s chest, a tear working its way down his cheek. He felt another warm weight behind him and Terra’s arms moved again, his arms now around Ven and Aqua together. 

“I know…you both found me…I’m so sorry…”

“Hey…um…” The trio raised their heads to see Sora kicking up a dust cloud with one shoe, trying to not look at the heart-felt reunion. 

“Sora, go,” Aqua ordered, stepping apart from her group. “You can do this.” 

“Aqua and Ven need to rest,” Sora nodded at Terra. “Get them somewhere safe.”

A battle was waged, but to the Wayfinder trio, their war was already over.


	2. Chapter 2

“I can’t believe it’s all over,” Xion said quietly as the light faded, the images of Eraqus and Xehanort still burned before all their eyes. 

“Who was that?” Riku asked, not taking his eyes from the spot where the men had stood just moments ago.

“That was our master,” Aqua whispered, tears still streaming down her face as she too watched the horizon where Eraqus had disappeared. “Terra…he was…” 

She had turned just in time to see Terra drop, his head hitting the ground hard as he fell flat behind her and Ven.

“Terra? Terra!” Aqua fell to the ground beside him, reaching out to gently slap him awake. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Ven shouted, looking horrified as he took a spot on Terra’s opposite side, shaking the large man’s shoulders as if he were just playing around.

“Lea…help me,” Riku ordered, gently swatting Aqua and Ven away as he picked up Terra from under his arms, Lea jumping over and taking his legs. “Let’s get him to the ship-we’ll take him to Ienzo. He’ll know what to do.” 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What should have been a return trip full of laughter and happiness-they had prevailed, they were all safe, and they were going home-was one fraught with worry.

“Maybe the old geezer had some sort of fail-safe in him or something,” Lea suggested quietly to Sora and Kairi from the opposite side of the hold, the three of them looking to where Terra lay with his head in Aqua’s lap and Ven holding on to one of his hands. 

“Shut up, Lea-don’t even think like that,” Kairi scolded, her heart seeming to squeeze in her chest at the worry she saw on Aqua and Ven’s faces. “They just got him back.” 

“He’ll be okay,” Sora replied quietly. “He has to be okay.” 

When they arrived at Radiant Garden, someone must have called ahead to make arrangements as Aeleus and Dilan were waiting for them with a stretcher, lifting Terra’s prone form and placing him on the table before wheeling him inside. Ienzo was waiting with Even, both looking on in anticipation of what was to come. 

“Go take care of yourselves,” Even told Aqua and Ven, then everyone else as they all began to follow the men wheeling Terra away. Aqua looked like she was ready for a fight before Ienzo stepped up, a full foot shorter than her but a calming presence as he held a hand up.

“Let us take care of him, Master Aqua. I promise, we’ll call for you as soon as we know something.” 

She didn’t seem happy about it, but she turned and put an arm around Ven, leading the boy to where Ansem the Wise was now gesturing for the entire group to come into a separate room. 

Between Aqua, Ansem, and the King, Cure spells were dosed out to nearly everyone in the party-healing things as small as scraped knees to as large as the gash across the back of Lea’s head that no one seemed to remember him getting. Aqua was just finishing popping Roxas’ shoulder back into place when Ienzo entered the room, Aqua jumping up from her spot.

“He’s fine,” Ienzo said quickly, able to tell that Aqua was going to rush him if he wasn’t quick with the information. “As far as Even and I can tell, it’s exhaustion.” 

“Is he awake?” Ven asked, stepping up beside Aqua. 

“Barely,” Ienzo answered. “I believe he was running on pure adrenaline at the Badlands, but now his body is reacting to being without possession for the first time in twelve years. It may take a few days for him to even out.” 

“Can we see him?” Ven asked, Ienzo looking like he would rather brush a crocodile’s teeth than get between Aqua and Ven. 

“I think…maybe one visitor?”

Ven and Aqua shared a look, and they must have decided silently between them, because Aqua nodded and stepped forward, following Ienzo down the corridor and away from the others. 

The lab was not exactly set up to be a hospital, but there was enough machinery around the makeshift bed to make it look like it as Aqua finally set her eyes on Terra’s body lying flat on one of the tables. His shirt was gone, Aqua seeing the evidence of it having been cut from him off to the side of the room where his hakama lay as well. He was covered to his chin with a sheet, and she took comfort in how his chest rose and fell evenly in time with his breaths. 

She might have been embarrassed if it wasn’t for how scared she felt-in all the years she’d known Terra, she had never seen him sick or injured enough to be bedridden, as the man had seemed to bounce back from everything with a vigor that was almost inhuman. Now, he looked smaller than normal, and even without talking she could tell the sense of tiredness nearly radiating from him.

His eyes fluttered open when her footsteps approached, and not knowing what to say, Aqua found another clean sheet to bunch up, helping him lift his head to place on it as a pillow. 

“Gave us a bit of a scare out there,” she told him, brushing a piece of his wild hair off his forehead. 

“Didn’t…mean to,” Terra’s voice was thin, like it took a lot of effort to get the sound out. 

“Don’t talk…just rest,” she told him, patting his hand where it sat on the hard table. Her face turned pink as she thought back to right after they found him, the kiss they had shared, and how they hadn’t had a chance to talk about it. What it meant. 

“Where’s…Ven?” he asked, Aqua rolling her eyes at his inability to follow directions. 

“He’s fine,” she answered. “Everybody’s fine. We have everybody healed up, just waiting for you.” 

“I’m tired,” Terra mumbled, and Aqua watched his eyes flutter shut once again, Ienzo giving her just a moment before approaching her again. 

“I’ve made arrangements for everybody to stay in the castle here at Radiant Garden,” he explained. “Some will need to share rooms, but there is plenty of space for everyone.” 

“Thank you, Ienzo.” 

“Thank you, Master Aqua. I…I didn’t deserve another chance, but you gave me one anyway. I am in your debt, and I promise you I will watch over Terra for you.” 

She nodded and stood, starting to walk from the room before seeming to change her mind about something. She turned and went back to Terra, leaning down and giving him a soft kiss on his forehead.


	3. Chapter 3

The rooms weren’t necessary that first night, as everyone had gathered in the large common room in the housing quarters and sort of staked claim on their own corners of the room. No one seemed willing to leave anyone else, and once several pizzas materialized out of seemingly no where (although Aqua suspected Lea) it became more obvious that everyone was going to sleep here that night. The only exceptions were Aqua and Ventus, the two of them still feeling too much like a part of them was missing to sleep.

It was still early when Ienzo entered the disaster-zone that was the common room, looking around at the empty pizza boxes and sleeping bodies littering the floor. Lea and Kairi were the only ones actually lying on a couch, while everyone else had sort of slept where they fell. Ienzo finally locked eyes with Aqua, her and Ven jumping up as quietly as possible and stepping over everyone to get to the door. 

“What is it? Is Terra okay?” Ven asked before Aqua even had the chance, Ienzo making a slightly uncomfortable face. 

“Ah, yes, well…he’s fine,” he answered awkwardly. “Rather fine, actually. He’s beginning to become a bit agitated with us in the lab…” 

“Sounds like our Terra,” Aqua replied with a roll of her eyes. “Ven, let’s go before he tears the place down.”   
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They weren’t even to the lab yet and they could already hear Terra’s voice, still sounding raspy but otherwise stronger than it had been the night before when Aqua had seen him.

“What do you mean you cut off my clothes? I’ve been wearing the same clothes for twelve years, and you just cut them off?”  
“Well, Master Terra, they were rather-“ They heard Even’s voice trying to reason with him, and Aqua could practically see the irritated expression on Terra’s face.

“I’m not a Master-quit calling me that-and who are you, anyway?”

“I’m Even, apprentice to Ansem the Wise.” 

“Who?”

“Ansem the Wise, the supreme leader of the-“

“Look, Blondie, you either find me some clothes or I am going to supremely lead my foot up your-“

“I see all those years away did nothing to affect your manners,” Aqua said, coming around the corner with a grin on her face that instantly dropped away when she saw him.

Unlike the previous night when he had been fully covered by a sheet, Terra now sat up on the table with the sheet only covering his bottom-half, leaving his torso fully exposed. Criss-crossing his chest were a series of scars, all looking different ages and covering nearly every inch of his skin with the exception of one small patch over his heart. Aqua had managed to suppress her gasp, but he had clearly seen her face, as he pulled the sheet up higher and poorly attempted to cover himself more. 

“Aqua, tell this Lab-rat that I’m fine and to get me some clothes,” Terra begged, looking at her with an expression that looked as if he wanted to be swallowed up by the floor. 

“Terra…what-“ Ven started, still staring wide-eyed at Terra’s chest. 

“Ven, why don’t you go ask Riku if he has any clothes that might fit Terra? Lea is almost as tall but is probably too skinny,” Aqua suggested, putting on a fake smile and turning Ven away from the door. The boy nodded and left, not taking his eyes off Terra until the last minute. “Even, Ienzo, could you give us just a moment?”

Ienzo nodded immediately and went to the door that led deeper into the lab, while it took Even a moment to huff and leave behind him. 

“You always were quite the charmer,” Aqua said with a forced chuckle, keeping her eyes on just about anything but Terra as she walked closer to where he sat. 

“You’d be annoyed too if you woke up in a strange place with no clothes and a bunch of nerds poking you,” he argued, relaxing his arms slightly when he realized there wasn’t much he could do to hide his scars. 

“I don’t know, sounds like the end to one wild party,” Aqua joked, finally looking up at him. He still looked tired, though not as completely wiped-out as he had the night before. Exhaustion had given way to concern, as he looked at her like she might suddenly disappear. 

“Aqua…what happened? I remember…falling. And you and Ven, then…nothing until this morning.” 

“You saved us,” she told him, giving him a small, shy smile from a few feet away as she leaned against a neighboring lab table. “You saved us and Sora destroyed Xehanort. Then you…” 

“Yeah, I remember that part,” he replied, face turning pink as both of them averted their eyes. 

“We can talk about that later…or not,” Aqua suggested, trying to immediately change the subject of their heartfelt…reunion. “Anyway, once everything was over, you just sort of collapsed. We brought you here in the Gummi-ship.” 

“The what?” 

“The Gummi-ship. It belongs to Mickey.” 

“Who?”

“You have a lot of catching up to do.”

Just as Aqua was reaching up to brush a lock of Terra’s hair out of his face, Ansem the Wise entered the room, Aqua jumping back and out of the way as the man crossed to them. 

“Terra, I was thrilled to hear that you were not only found, but in good health,” he rumbled in his low voice, putting a hand out for Terra to shake.

Terra took the man’s hand somewhat reluctantly. “Sorry…I don’t think we’ve met.” 

“I am Ansem, I run this laboratory and am responsible for many of the hardships you have faced recently. I will never be able to properly thank you or apologize.” 

“Well…that’s right to the point,” Terra replied with a raised eyebrow. “Look…no hard feelings or anything, I just want to get out of here. Your…apprentices are giving me the creeps.” 

“They too are adamant for a chance to atone,” Ansem answered. “Forgive me for not having made better preparations for you and your friends. As we speak rooms are being prepared for everyone. Unless you would prefer to make your way home to the Land of Departure immediately.” 

“No,” Terra answered quickly, causing Aqua to jump. “No…I can’t go back there. I don’t think…I don’t think I can live there anymore after what I did.” 

Aqua started to object to his sentence, but Ansem continued. “Then you are welcome to our accommodations as long as you wish.”

“Thanks.” 

“Now, I understand rest is in order for all involved after the most recent events, but I must ask you to consider allowing my apprentices to run medical tests regarding the health of your body so soon after possession.” 

“I’m fine,” Terra interrupted firmly, his face turning slightly dark at the mention of Xehanort’s possession of his body. “He’s gone. So is Eraqus. I know what both of them felt like and they’re both gone.” 

“I don’t doubt that whatsoever,” Ansem agreed. “However, we know next to nothing of your experiences while possessed. For example, were you aware of Xehanort’s actions? Or was it akin to being unconscious?”

The darkness on Terra’s face fell, leaving an expression that looked far more vulnerable than Aqua could ever remember seeing him. 

“I was there,” he began quietly. “At first I fought every second of every day. He would hurt my body and make me feel it for me to stop. That’s where…” He gestured to his torso where the scars dotted and criss-crossed his chest. “I could feel everything he did…but it was like…watching on a screen. No matter how hard I fought, I couldn’t…” 

“I think that’s enough for right now,” Aqua interrupted, taking a step to put herself between Ansem and Terra. Her facial expression relayed to the Wise man that there was to be no more discussion, and luckily there was no need for argument as Ven returned at that moment with a small mountain of clothes. 

“Hey, Ter. I got as much as I could that might fit-but you know, you’re taller and bigger than everyone else, so…I did what I could.” Ven tossed the pile on the lab table not occupied by Terra and gave everyone a huge grin, completely unaware of the weight of the previous discussion. 

“Thanks, Ven,” Terra answered, hopping off his table while keeping the sheet wrapped around his waist. As soon as he touched the ground he wobbled, Aqua reaching out instinctively to steady him. “Guess I’m still a bit shaky.” 

“Ven…help him get dressed?” Aqua suggested, knowing Terra would never recover if she offered. 

“Sure!” Ven replied easily, looking over to Terra with a wide grin. 

“I’ll wait just outside,” she said, moving toward one door while Ansem started for the other. 

“Terra, I look forward to speaking more about this in the future.” 

“About what?” Ven asked, holding out a white t-shirt to Terra. 

“About your appalling sense of fashion,” Terra answered for him, pulling the much-too-small shirt over his head with a sigh.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When the three of them arrived back to the common room, someone had clearly initiated the waking routine of most of the teenagers, as many were now in various states of being awake and sitting around like zombies. Lea and Sora were still snoring softly where they each lay, but all the other eyes turned toward the trio that entered the room. 

It was lucky that Lea was still asleep, as he would have been the only one with the guts to actually poke fun of Terra and his current wardrobe. He had settled on a pair of pants that looked more like long shorts on him and a white t-shirt that had the appearance of being about to split at the seams. He was also barefoot, as it seemed even more ridiculous for him to put on his armor boots with his current ensemble. 

“Whoever’s shirt I’m wearing, I’ll have to owe you a new one because I’m not sure I can get it back off again without cutting it,” he attempted to joke, feeling uncomfortable with all the focus on him.

“No problem,” Riku chuckled, throwing a hand up to wave at him. 

“Don’t suppose there’s anything left to eat around here?” Terra sighed, looking at the various empty pizza boxes littering the floor. 

“There’s a kitchen, but no one knows how to cook anything,” Xion piped up from the corner, looking immediately embarrassed at the confession. 

“Do you get the feeling that we just became parents to eight short people?” Aqua asked Terra, both of them smiling but cheeks turning pink at the suggestion. 

“I’m taller than you, Aqua,” Ven argued. 

“I think everyone is,” Roxas agreed. 

“All right, all right,” she laughed. “Terra, help me in the kitchen. All the rest of you-shower, get dressed, meet in thirty. And no Keyblades at the table!”


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing Aqua noticed about Terra was that he was much clumsier than she remembered. It took a few minutes and three dropped objects for her to realize that in all the time she had been wandering the dark realm, Terra had been a prisoner in his own body. Clearly he was having trouble adjusting to being in control again, but she decided not to mention anything until the second time he tripped over his own feet. 

“You’re the picture of grace this morning,” she teased gently, holding an arm out to steady him before he fell into the counter. 

“I still feel like someone’s controlling me,” he admitted quietly, sitting the bowl he’d been holding on the counter beside where Aqua was working. “It’s like my brain is telling my body to do something but the message is getting held up.” 

“It’ll take time, but you’ll get back to normal,” Aqua told him, stopping for a moment and turning to him. “You’ve been through a lot Terra, but you’ll be you again.” 

He smiled at her and immediately set to work doing something else, unable to hold eye contact for long without feeling his cheeks heat up. 

“Do…you want to talk about it?” She asked, knowing the answer before she even finished the question. 

“No,” he answered, cracking eggs into a bowl. “Like you said, it’ll take time. I just have to get used to it again.” 

“That’s not what I was talking about,” she told him, putting a hand out and resting it on his arm. He stopped, still looking down at the bowl. 

“I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds, I just-“

“You didn’t,” she assured him, using her other hand to turn his chin up to look at her. 

He opened his mouth to say something else but at that moment Ven came storming into the kitchen, his smile bright as he rubbed his stomach. 

“Something smells good! Is anything…” he stopped, looking at how Terra and Aqua had once again jumped away from each other. “Am I…interrupting something?”

“Here Ven, go set the table and tell everybody that bacon and waffles are ready,” Aqua told him, gesturing to where she had stacked up plates and silverware on the countertop. “Eggs will be up in a minute.” 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aqua had seen a lot in her years of wandering the dark realm, but nothing that she had seen in those twelve years would ever compare to the sight of eight teenagers eating breakfast the morning after the fight of their lives. No matter how much food she and Terra placed on the table, it was seemingly inhaled within minutes. 

She was no stranger to seeing great feats of eating-she had lived with Ven and Terra, each of whom could put away their fair share. But now Terra stood off to the side with a bowl of cereal, munching quietly as he too watched in amazement as Ventus took what had to be his twentieth piece of bacon. 

“It’s like watching a car accident,” Aqua whispered to Terra as she sipped her own coffee.

“I can’t stop watching,” he agreed, spoon frozen on its way to his mouth. 

“Hey, how are we going to split up rooms?” Kairi managed to say loud enough so the entire table could hear. “Ienzo said there’s four we can use.” 

“Us girls can share,” Xion spoke up, Naminé smiling in agreement. 

“Aqua should have her own room, since she’s an adult,” Ven suggested. 

“What about me?” Lea argued. “I’m older than you lot.” 

“By six months,” Riku countered, throwing a piece of toast at Lea to shut him up. 

“Besides, you can room with me, Lea,” Roxas suggested. 

“And Ven,” Lea suggested, Ven nodding in answer. 

“That leaves me and Riku for the other one,” Sora replied through a mouthful of hash browns. “No problem there.” 

“What about Terra?” Ven worried aloud, although Terra was not about to insert himself into a room with any of the teenage boys. 

“I’ll just sleep out in the common room on the couch,” he suggested, looking down at his bowl and completely unaware of the grin that was stretching over Lea’s face. 

“Way I hear it, you can share with Aqua,” Lea mocked, everyone going silent as they tried to not look at Terra and Aqua. 

Terra was still frozen with his bowl in his hand, although now he gave Ven a withering look. “Well, you still have a big mouth.” 

“It wasn’t me, I swear!” Ven shouted, holding his hands up defensively.

“Sorry…didn’t know it was a secret,” Sora shrugged, going back to his eggs. 

“It isn’t anything,” Aqua argued, rolling her eyes at all the kids sitting at the table and placing another plate of waffles in front of them, effectively shutting them up. Everyone went back to eating, although Ven noticed a slight look of what looked like hurt on Terra’s face before he put his bowl down.

“Where’s the shower?” Terra asked, hoping there was some hot water left.

“Come on, I’ll show you,” Aqua said, gesturing for him to follow her. 

“Maximum occupancy of one,” Lea sniggered, Aqua smacking him on the back of the head as she passed.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“You really can share my room if you want, you know,” Aqua commented as they walked down the narrow hallway toward the bathroom. “Not like it would be the first time.” 

“Except we’re a little older than ten,” Terra chuckled, padding in his bare feet and taking in the tall doors on either side of the hallway. “And the Master isn’t going to come carry me to my own room.” 

They were both quiet for a moment as they remembered their Master’s fate. 

“Were you serious about not going back?” Aqua asked quietly, watching Terra’s face cloud with emotion. 

“I don’t think I can go back to where I…where I killed him,” he murmured.

“You didn’t kill him, Terra. You were protecting Ven, and it was a horrible circumstance. I would have done the same thing.”

“But you didn’t,” he countered, stopping in the hallway. “You didn’t kill him. You didn’t allow yourself to get possessed. You didn’t cause all the problems because you weren’t strong enough to keep some old man from making you do things.” 

“Is that what you think?” she scoffed. “That it was as simple as choosing to shut him off? Terra, he was possibly the strongest Keyblade Master in the universe…anyone would have succumbed to him.” She reached out and took one of Terra’s hands, but he pulled it away and kept walking down the hall. 

“But it wasn’t _anyone_. It was me. I did all those things.” 

“What you said earlier…how it was like you were watching it…that wasn’t completely true, was it?”

He didn’t answer verbally, only shaking his head slowly as they walked. 

“You could feel it,” she supplied for him, Terra stopping once more. 

“I felt _everything_ that he felt,” he practically whispered. “Sometimes…it was just easier to let him have complete control. To not fight. I was so tired all the time, but I could have fought harder to stop him.”

“And I could have fought harder to get away from the dark realm,” she argued. “Neither of us are perfect. But there’s nothing we can do now but carry on.” 

He finally looked up at her, worrying his lips as he nodded. After a second, a smile pulled at the ends of his mouth. 

“What?” She asked, unable to help a small smile of her own in response to his. 

“Been way too long since you told me to get my head out of my own ass,” he chuckled. 

Aqua laughed too, playfully slapping his arm before changing her mind and pulling him into a hug instead. Despite more than a decade since the last one, this hug felt the same as all the others she remembered from so long ago, and a weight felt as if it had been lifted from her heart. 

“You know…I’ll go talk to Aeleus while you’re in the shower-I bet he’s closer to your size than Riku. Maybe he has some clothes you can have until we get you your own.”

“That would be nice,” he agreed with a sigh. “It’s hard to be imposing when I look like I got dressed in Ven’s closet.” 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It took a few minutes to figure out the shower, as it was some sort of cutting-edge technology just like everything else in Radiant Garden, but soon enough Terra was standing under the hot water. It felt good-in a way he hadn’t had a shower in twelve years-and he simply stood for a while and let the hot water stream down his body without even attempting to wash. 

Everything ached. Before Xehanort he had trained every day-stretched, ran, lifted, and anything else he could to stay fit and sharp. Xehanort had been more of an indoor man-rarely leaving the lab, let alone doing anything too physical. He was thankful it was still his own body underneath, but it was going to take some toning to get to the point where he wasn’t in pain constantly. 

He was just finishing rinsing the last of whatever shampoo had been in the shower out of his hair when there was a soft knock on the door. 

“It’s me,” Aqua’s voice sounded through the door.

“Just a sec…” he shouted back to her, turning off the water and shaking the excess out of his hair. There were several towels folded in the cabinet, so he helped himself to one-dragging it over his body quickly before wrapping it around his waist. He hesitated before opening it, but remembered that Aqua had already seen his scars and this was not much different than his sheet from that morning. 

“Success,” Aqua told him once he opened the door, handing him a neatly folded pile of clothes that looked much more appropriate to a man of his size and age. 

“Thanks,” he answered, raising an eyebrow at Aqua until she turned around so he could change. 

“Aeleus is huge, so I figured he’d be a decent fit. Not quite as tall as you though. He gave me a few other things for you too.” She looked at the back of the door as she heard Terra changing behind her, and audible sigh coming from him when the clothes actually fit. 

“That’s so much better,” he sighed again, throwing his towel at Aqua to let her know she could turn around. Aeleus had supplied a plain black t-shirt and jeans, which to Aqua’s surprise fit Terra quite well despite his being an inch or two taller than the Radiant Garden guard. 

“We’ll send someone out to get you some shoes-those clunky boots of yours aren’t exactly great for lounging around,” she suggested, watching Terra fold the clothes he had borrowed from Riku. “Feel better?”

“Yeah, but…still feels weird,” he admitted, stretching his arms above his head now that he could move without fear of ripping the shirt he was wearing. “Like I’ve been stuck in limbo for years.” 

“There’s a nice gym downstairs,” she told him. “Ven and I were here for a couple weeks before we found you-it’s a nice place. Come on, I’ll show you around.” 

“How is Ven?” he asked, following her out into the hall as she began her tour, the two of them walking slowly through the ornate hallways. 

“Surprisingly good,” she admitted. “Hasn’t changed a bit. I thought he might have trouble…you know, adjusting after he woke, but it was like I just woke him up from a nap. Just like old times.”

Terra smiled at the thought of how often he and Aqua would find the boy asleep in various parts of the Land of Departure, seemingly able to curl up for a nap anywhere. 

“He’s really taken to the others well, and they treat him like they’ve known him forever,” she continued. “I guess Lea actually did meet him ten years ago.”

“Not sure I like that red-headed twerp,” Terra grumbled as they passed a window overlooking the surrounding mountains outside. It really was beautiful here. 

“He has a mouth on him, that’s for sure,” Aqua laughed. “But I promise, he’s actually not a bad kid when you get to know him. He’s done a lot of good. Got a soft spot for Kairi, though.” 

“There’s so many kids…is that the quiet, dark-haired one?”

“Nope, that’s Xion,” she explained. “Even I’m not really sure about her part in all this. But you’ll get used to it. It’s like having eight Vens running around.” 

“I’ve died and gone to hell,” Terra joked, the two of them sharing another laugh before falling again into an awkward silence. 

“Aqua…I want to apologize,” Terra began after a moment, looking at the floor. 

“Terra, we’ve been through this-it wasn’t-“

“About before all this happened,” he interrupted, looking up at her for a moment. “Getting mad when the Master asked you to keep an eye on me. About the exam. I was an idiot back then, and…I’m sorry.” 

“I should have told you about it, I’m sorry too,” she answered, reaching a hand out without really thinking about it and cupping the side of his face. 

“No, he was right-obviously. You were doing what you were supposed to do.” 

“I’m still sorry we fought,” she added, hand still on his face. “I thought about it all the time. I missed you so much.” 

“I missed you too,” he agreed, the two of them slowly closing the distance between them.

“Are you guys kissing again?” They heard Ven’s voice, and Aqua could have sworn she heard Terra mumbling something along the lines of “can’t catch a break.” 

“Because I’m happy for you guys and everything, but it’s kind of like seeing your parents kiss.” Ven was grinning, though he was trying to make himself look more disgusted than he really was. “So…did you ask him yet?”

“Ask me what?” Terra questioned, looking at Aqua in confusion, his earlier frustration mostly gone. 

“Ven wants to keep a cat he found,” she explained poorly.

“He’s not a cat, and his name is Chirithy,” Ven argued. “He’s a dream-eater, and he’s really cool, and-“ 

“Ven, why are you asking me if you can keep a cat?” Terra asked, ignoring the boy's arguments.

“Well…I don’t know. I guess, because you guys have always kind of been, you know, in charge of me?”

“Sure, keep the Chippery-thing,” he replied, shrugging. 

“Chirithy,” Ven corrected. 

“Whatever. If the thing doesn’t use the bathroom on me or leave hair on my clothes…when I have clothes…I don’t care.” 

“Thanks, Terra! You guys are the best!” Ven started running back down the hall toward the kitchen. “You can go back to kissing now!”

Aqua and Terra shared another awkward glance and laugh together, Aqua eventually pulling him by the hand in the opposite direction. 

“Come on, gym is down this way.”


	5. Chapter 5

The thing Terra hadn’t considered when he claimed the common room as his bedroom was that it meant he had to wait for everyone else to leave before he could actually go to bed. It was late enough that even the teenagers had wound down, everyone draped over the various couches and chairs in varying states of drowsing. 

It was when Aqua finally caught Terra letting out a rare yawn that she finally stepped up, starting to shoo all the teens to their respective rooms. 

“Okay, bed everyone. It’s late-you need your rest, and we’re going out to get supplies tomorrow.” 

“Aw, mo-om,” Lea whined, drawing out the word. “Five more minutes?”

“Lea, I will snap you in half, so help me,” Aqua told him with a grin that was equal parts hilarious to the others and terrifying to the red-head. 

“All right, I’m going, I’m going,” he complained, holding his hands up. 

Once the final door was closed and the sounds of kids getting into bed receded, Aqua crashed back on to the couch where Terra was slumped. 

“I see you managed to snag some blankets?” she yawned, watching as Terra pulled a random blanket over and tossed it to her. 

“Took it from Riku and Sora’s room,” he explained, yawning again. “Since they only have two in their room, figured they didn’t need as many. You can go to bed if you want, you know.” 

“I feel bad leaving you out here,” she admitted, pulling the blanket up to her chin and settling in beside him on the couch. 

“Then stay for a while,” he replied, turning the television volume to low and adjusting himself to lay more comfortably on the couch. When he was comfortable, he held his arms open to Aqua, and after a short, awkward laugh, she leaned over to lay against his chest. This was familiar-before they left the Land of Departure they would do this occasionally. At the time, she told herself it was because they were best friends and were just keeping each other company, but now her naiveté was long gone. They were lonely, and they had each other. 

Terra had thought holding Aqua like this would set his heart to racing, but surprisingly it produced the opposite effect-he finally felt himself able to relax, her warm weight on top of him reminding him that he was safe. 

After nearly an hour, Terra fumbled with the remote to turn the television off. 

“I should go to my room,” Aqua yawned, making absolutely no attempt to move. 

“You should,” Terra agreed, dropping the remote and turning his head to rest against Aqua’s, breathing in the smell of her hair.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ventus was not a morning person. Even so, he was somehow the first one up the next morning, and he decided to go see if Aqua and Terra needed help in the kitchen. He knocked softly on Aqua’s door, just making sure she was up and about, and sure enough, when he opened it her room was empty. 

Making his way out to the common room, he stopped in his tracks at the sight that met him. Aqua and Terra were still fast asleep, cuddled on the couch and covered with a blanket. Terra had one arm around Aqua, the other behind his head as he breathed deep and slow, his breath blowing a piece of Aqua’s hair back and forth. 

When he first saw them kiss just after Terra’s return, he had felt odd about the new twist to their relationship. Now that he’d had a few days to consider it, he realized how selfish he’d been. Both of them still loved him just as much as they always had, but while Ventus had been asleep for the last twelve years, the two of them had experienced their own versions of hell. They deserved any comfort they could find, and if that happened to be in each other, then that just meant he would always know where to find them both. 

He knew Aqua hadn’t had a good nights sleep since she had been back, and he figured Terra’s couldn’t have been very good when he was passed out on a table either, so he decided not to wake them-and figured he could head everyone else off before they did as well. 

Taking his gummiphone out of his pocket, he snapped a quick picture of the sleeping couple and wrote a note, then tip-toed out of the room to tell everyone else to avoid the room. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For just a moment, Aqua was back home in her bed in the Land of Departure. She must have fallen asleep in one of the shirts she’d stolen from Terra, because her bed smelled like him. She could smell food cooking, so maybe Master Eraqus already had breakfast ready, and she could con Terra into cleaning up before their training session today.

She opened her eyes, the reality of her situation hitting her like a brick when she didn’t recognize the room, but thankfully did recognize the sleeping heap beneath her. Terra was fast asleep, mouth open slightly as his chest rose and fell in deep, even time. He had a dark shadow of stubble over his face and Aqua was briefly surprised to realize she’d never seen him with facial hair. 

She sat up and stretched, Terra making a small noise of protest before turning his head back against the couch and sleeping on. It was too quiet for as much sunshine as was coming in through the windows-even the teenagers who could seemingly sleep forever were bound to be awake by now. That was when she saw the note on the end table, her’s and Terra’s names written on it in Ven’s loopy handwriting. It had just one word on the inside-“kitchen.” 

“Terra…” Aqua whispered, putting down the note and gently prodding Terra’s chest. He mumbled something incoherent and tried to roll over, unable to get far with Aqua still on top of him. “Terra…wake up, we overslept.” 

If there was anyone who was less of a morning person than Ven, it was Terra. Back home, Aqua had developed a series of tactics for waking him up, some meaner than others depending on who had won the spar the previous day and how quickly she wanted him up. She tried waking him gently a couple more times, then finally resorted to a tried and true method-feeling around his shirt until she found a nipple and pinched.

“GAH!” He yelped as his eyes snapped open, trying and failing to knock Aqua off of him while simultaneously trying to cover his chest with both hands. “What was that for?”

“I swear, you sleep like a rock!” Aqua laughed, giggling at the way Terra’s hair was plastered flat on one side and sticking straight up on the other. “I’ve been trying nicely for like five minutes.” 

He finally relaxed and flopped back down, looking at the bright light from the window. “Take it we fell asleep?”

“Looks that way, yeah,” she answered, reluctantly getting off him despite how comfortably warm she was there. “Sorry about that.” 

“No, it’s fine,” he grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his face with his hands. “Where is everybody?”

She handed him the note in answer, Terra yawning as he read it and stretched. “Great. Now we’ll have to deal with his jokes and a burnt-down kitchen.”

They didn’t bother changing, figuring everyone else would still be in their sleep clothes as well as they made their way to the kitchen, the two greeted by eight knowing grins as they entered. 

“Good morning, you crazy kids,” Lea teased, Aqua surprised to see Terra smile and blush rather than punch him in the gut. 

“Sorry, didn’t want to wake you-you guys seemed so peaceful,” Ven explained, handing each of them a mug of coffee, Aqua adding an ungodly amount of sugar while Terra drank his black. A quick look around the kitchen showed that they had made their own breakfast, albeit in an extremely messy, disorganized way. “We saved you some pancakes.” 

“Thanks, Ven,” Aqua answered with a sigh, knowing how long it was going to take her and Terra to clean up the mess. “If I give you a list can you do Terra and I’s shopping for us so we can stay and clean this up?”

“Sure!” he answered, always willing to do anything to please. “I’ll go get my stuff.” 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terra was starting to believe it was physically impossible for the young members of their party to have possibly made a bigger mess than what they had this morning. He and Aqua had been cleaning for over an hour and hadn’t even made a dent in the plethora of pots and pans that lie dirty on the countertops. 

“So…gonna embrace the scruff?” Aqua asked after several minutes of silence, Terra giving her a confused look before she gestured to her own chin. 

“Oh. Yeah, the benefits of being around a bunch of boys who don’t shave yet,” he sighed. “No, I asked Ven to pick up a razor while they were out today. Doesn’t suit me.” 

“I don’t know, it gives you kind of a rugged, handsome look,” Aqua mused, drying off a plate before replacing it in the cabinets. Terra blushed slightly and gave her a small grin. 

“I think it just makes me look old. And considering I don’t even know how old I am, that’s saying something.” 

It hadn’t been determined yet by Ienzo and Even, but what they did know is that neither Terra nor Aqua seemed to have aged the full twelve years that they had been gone. Time seemed to move differently in the dark realm, and there was no telling with Terra as he had traveled through time with Xehanort. 

“You don’t look old, but I understand if you want to shave it.” 

They were quiet again, and Aqua started to watch Terra out of the corner of her eye. He had been even more reserved this morning than he had been yesterday, and he seemed to have something heavy weighing on his mind. 

“Munny for your thoughts?” Aqua finally asked, just as they uncovered another pile of dirty dishes beneath a towel. 

Terra stopped for a moment, leaning against the counter with both hands. 

“Something just doesn’t feel…right,” he said, shaking his head and staring off into space. “I haven’t been able to place it, but I just don’t feel…like me.” 

Aqua put down the bowl she was washing and dried her hands on a dish towel, moving to stand beside him. “Are you hurt? Something left over from the final battle?”

“No, I don’t think that’s it,” he replied, shaking his head again. “I don’t know. Just something feels…off.”

“Give it time,” she hesitated, putting a hand on his arm. “We’ll figure it out. Together.” 

Terra nodded but didn’t seem convinced, and the two moved back into their silent cleaning spree as they slowly worked their way through the detritus of breakfast. 

At some point, Terra went to pick up what looked to be a pile of plates and promptly dropped them all with a gasp. At first, Aqua assumed it was another one of his clumsy accidents, but then she saw the blood. 

“Oh my god, Terra-are you all right?” she asked, turning off the water and rushing to him. He was holding one hand in the other, a steady stream of bright, red blood pooling in his palm. 

“There was a knife in the middle-I didn’t see it,” he explained, wincing as Aqua took his hands in hers. She dabbed it gently with a clean towel, revealing a deep gash across his palm. “I guess I’ll just…stitch it up or something.” 

“Terra, don’t be ridiculous, I’ll just Cure you,” Aqua argued, putting her other hand over Terra’s and closing her eyes. He felt the cool sensation before the pale green light shone from her hands, and within seconds the pain was gone-the cut healed perfectly. “He never Cured your cuts, did he?” She asked after she recovered, looking annoyed. “All those times he hurt you, he never even had the decency to heal them after?”

Terra shook his head silently, and Aqua could see a pain deep in his eyes, giving her the feeling that she had barely scratched the surface of the kind of things Xehanort had done to him.

“He can’t hurt you anymore, Terra,” she whispered, still holding both of his hands. “He’s gone. And even if he wasn’t, there’s no way I would ever let him.” 

He nodded silently, and Aqua couldn’t really tell if he believed her or not, but she decided it wasn’t worth pushing at the moment. 

“Come on, you go put the clean dishes away…I’ll clean up the blood.”


	6. Chapter 6

The morning was cool enough that even the sleepy teenagers (minus Naminé, who was inside drawing) were waking up enough to jump up and down to stay warm, although nearly every one of them was yawning as they did so. Riku was the only one out of the “kids” to be totally awake, focusing forward on Yen Sid as he began to speak. 

“Today you will all recommence your training.”

“Why do we need to train?” Lea whined, his hair nowhere near it’s normal height thanks to him having to be pulled out of bed by Roxas. “Didn’t we nix all the bad guys?”

“While Sora has managed to dispel Master Xehanort, there could still be threats to the worlds from outside sources, necessitating the training of new Keyblade Masters.”

“Yeah, whatever Obi-Wan, let’s just get this over with.” 

Yen Sid continued without any hint of irritation, closing his eyes before speaking again. “We are privileged to have before us three Keyblade Masters in Aqua, Terra, and Riku.” 

“I’m not a Master,” Terra corrected him quickly, holding up one finger in disagreement. 

“While inconvenient that it happened to be Xehanort, a Master still deemed you also a Master,” Yen Sid replied, eyes still closed, as if he were prepared for this argument. 

“I’m not a Master,” Terra repeated. “I don’t care what he said.”

“Regardless, you have much to teach our young apprentices.” 

Terra stopped then, but looked down as if he were extremely uncomfortable being the teacher in this situation. Aqua tried to make eye contact with him to attempt a comforting smile, but instead made a mental note to talk to him later. 

“We will begin with hand-to-hand combat, as many times a Keyblade will be unable to help.”

All of the trainees seemed to perk up at the thought of going hand-to-hand, and each started to look around as if sizing up the competition. 

“Now,” Yen Sid continued. “Master Aqua and Master Riku, if you could observe,” he gestured for the two to stand beside him. “Now, you six,” he now gestured to Sora, Kairi, Lea, Roxas, Xion, and Ventus. “Attack Terra.”   
“That’s not fair!” Ven shouted, looking extremely put-off the suggestion.

“Seriously, six-on-one? That’s insane odds,” Roxas agreed. 

“I mean it’s not fair for us!” Ven replied, turning on his near-twin. “We are so going down.” 

“You can’t be serious right now,” Lea simpered, rolling his eyes. “Come on losers, I think the six of us can take on one muscle head.” 

“Bring it on, Red,” Terra answered calmly, stretching his arms behind his back. 

Aqua had to tell herself how un-Master-like it would be to laugh at what followed. She was pretty sure that Terra could have taken on all six of the young Keyblade wielders blindfolded, with one hand, and on one foot for as easy as it was for him. She did sneak a smile as she watched him though, it having been so long since she watched him in action all those years ago with Eraqus. Their master never did anything by halves, often having them complete challenges at huge personal odds in order to prepare them for anything. 

True to his personality, Lea was the last one to bow out, Terra ducking an obvious spell with ease and returning with a swift kick to take Lea’s feet out from beneath him. Terra wasn’t even breathing hard. 

“Better work on that magic, Red,” he teased, brushing his hands off as he gave the smallest grin. 

Lea grumbled something about an inappropriate place Terra could put his magic before conceding and taking Terra’s offered hand, the bigger man helping Lea up and patting him on the back. “Maybe next time, Champ.” 

“So, you have learned that numbers are not everything, and keeping a collected mind is more important than brute force,” Yen Sid explained sagely, appearing to have known before they even started what the outcome would be. “Now, Master Aqua, please show the apprentices how magic can be used within battle.” 

Aqua stepped forward, Terra shaking his head and his limbs as he tried to loosen up. “No problem, Master Yen Sid. It’s been way too long since I’ve had a chance to kick Terra’s ass.” 

The teenagers all sniggered, Yen Sid giving no implication he either heard nor cared about her taunt. 

“Seriously? Six of us couldn’t take him down but Princess Sparkle shoes here is gonna do it?” Lea asked, Roxas letting out a giggle before he could help it. 

“You have a lot to learn, pup,” Aqua responded, turning to Terra as the two of them bowed to each other to begin their spar. 

“I will inform you when Keyblades may be summoned,” Yen Sid said from the side. “Begin.” 

The teenagers found themselves not wanting to blink, as everything that happened in front of them was so fast, they didn’t want to miss a single move. Terra was strong, but Aqua was fast. Just as he would seem to be prepared to strike a fatal blow, she would feint out of the way just in time to take his balance. No matter how serious their fight seemed to be, it was obvious to anyone watching that they were both having the time of their lives. 

Aqua tried a trick where she feinted left before moving right, Terra catching her just before she vaulted over his right shoulder and bringing her down with a quick move. 

“That hasn’t worked since I was thirteen,” he taunted, though he was grinning. 

“Just thought you might have forgotten,” she teased back, dodging Terra’s next attack neatly and cartwheeling away.

“Keyblades summoned and magic unleashed…NOW!” Yen Sid yelled, Aqua doing so immediately and sending a powerful burst of energy straight at Terra.

Terra held out his hand, willing his Keyblade into it, and…nothing. He looked down, completely disoriented by his lack of weapon, just as Aqua’s attack came too close to dodge. 

“Oh, sh-“

The attack hit like a train. Terra was thrown backwards several feet, landing on his back with a thud that resounded across the training grounds. The apprentices all gasped, Riku and Aqua running for where he landed. 

“Terra? Oh my god, I’m sorry!” Aqua cried, kneeling beside where he was laying. 

“Good shot,” he groaned, sounding like it was hard to get any sort of sound out. 

“Why didn’t you summon your Keyblade and block, you idiot?” She asked, Riku already beginning the most powerful Cure he could manage. 

“I…tried,” Terra groaned, wincing as Aqua tried to help him up. “It…didn’t…” 

“You can’t summon your Keyblade?” she asked, eyes wide with concern. 

Terra held his hand out again, willing with all his might for his Keyblade to appear. Nothing. Yen Sid approached, having disbanded the younger students. They were all walking back toward the castle, sneaking looks back whenever they got a chance. 

“Perhaps we have begun training too soon into your recovery, Terra,” Yen Sid suggested, his face still never providing any hint of emotion. “You have summoned the Key before, and shall again. It will only take time.” 

Riku finished his spell, though Terra still groaned as he sat up, holding his chest where the powerful magic had hit him. 

“Terra…maybe you still have darkness within your heart,” Riku suggested. “And it’s keeping you from summoning your Keyblade.” 

“Well, if you have any ideas for getting it out, I’d love to hear them,” Terra answered sarcastically, taking Aqua’s offered hand to help him up. 

“I’ll think about it, but I think you and I should talk when you’re ready,” Riku replied, Terra looking like he was actually considering punching him in the face before he relaxed a bit and nodded. 

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Let me…get some ice first. Geez, Aqua, you didn’t go easy on me, did you?” 

“Would you have let me hear the end of it if I did?” She asked, raising an eyebrow and attempting a smile, though it was evident she was concerned. 

“No. Not like it’s the first time you’ve had me on my back,” he said, Riku turning to look at him with a suggestive raise of his own eyebrow. 

“I mean in battle. Like…sparring. Nevermind.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is transitional in nature and deals with Riku and Terra's training. I took a lot of liberties with Terra's backstory here.

The sun was finishing its final leg in the sky, the shadows cast about Radiant Garden brilliant hues of gold and red. Everybody was inside eating dinner and preparing for bed, with the exception of Terra and Riku, who sat cross-legged beneath a tree on one of the castle’s many gardens. They had been silently meditating for over an hour, and had it been anyone but Terra, it would have seemed like overkill. However, Terra was no stranger to meditation, and actually rather enjoyed the mind-cleansing effect it was able to have on him at the best of times. Eraqus had taught him well.

“How do you feel?” Riku asked, breaking the silence and turning his body to face Terra, who had just begun to open his eyes. 

“Sore,” he admitted. Yen Sid had performed his best Cure spell, but Aqua’s cast had been a strong one, and his ribs still throbbed dully. 

“I meant mentally,” Riku replied, not taking his eyes off Terra. Terra found it difficult to lie to the boy, his green eyes seeming to look straight through him. 

“Worried, concerned,” he finally admitted, swallowing hard. It took a lot for him to push back his pride and accept help from someone more than ten years his junior (or was it less? More?), but in the end he knew it was necessary. 

“Your Keyblade will return to you,” Riku assured him. “But I don’t think you’ll want it to until you learn to control the darkness in your heart and harness the light instead.” 

Terra nodded, embarrassed. 

“Xehanort chose you for a reason,” Riku said after a moment, eyes still penetrating Terra’s. 

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a reason he chose you over Aqua,” he continued, Terra’s cheeks reddening at the implication. 

“I know. Because her heart is stronger.” 

“No, because yours had more room for darkness.” 

They were silent for a few moments, Riku finally continuing without any hint of embarassment. “You knew darkness before your training.” 

Terra had never spoken of his time before training to anybody. Most of it he didn’t even remember, and the rest he blocked from his mind. 

“Tell me about your darkness.” 

Terra’s eyes were slightly widened by Riku’s ability to plow through such a sensitive subject, but he still felt compelled to tell him. 

“I…I was eight when my father died.” Terra’s voice was soft, but apparently Riku could hear because he wasn’t asked to speak up. “He was sick. For a long time. We were poor, and we didn’t have any way to get him better. I was…angry. Angry that something as simple as munny would take my father away from me, and…” 

“And you allowed the darkness into your heart,” Riku completed for him. 

“I didn’t even know what it was,” Terra admitted, shaking his head. “I would just get so angry, and things would happen…I could control the light and darkness, move things, and cast spells before I’d had any formal training.” 

“And what happened then?” 

“My mother couldn’t support our family-there were four of us with my two sisters. She…she sent me out for work but I was so young. And then one day, Eraqus showed up at our door.” 

“He offered to take you on as an apprentice?”

Terra nodded. “He assured my mother I would be taken care of, and that she and my sisters would be provided for. I…never saw any of them ever again.” 

Riku allowed Terra to be silent for a few moments, knowing the information was not easy to say aloud. 

“I suspect Eraqus, like Xehanort, chose you for a reason,” Riku said after several minutes of silence. “Your heart radiated its darkness, and likewise its ability to hold light.” 

Terra’s brow furrowed, his head shaking. “You’re saying Eraqus chose me to teach because I was dangerous?”

“Potentially,” he admitted, shrugging. “But I think he also saw your potential for light. If a heart that could hold that much darkness so young could be honed, taught…imagine the light it could one day hold.” 

The two of them sat in silence once again, Terra processing the words he had just heard. It was Riku again who broke the silence. 

“Eraqus trained you because he believed you could one day be one of the greatest lights the worlds have ever known. Xehanort chose you because if that happened, he would be ruined.” 

Terra wasn’t sure if they words helped, or made him feel the pressure even more to vanquish the darkness within him. “So…what do I do?”

“We train,” Riku said simply, standing up and offering Terra a hand up. “If you could harness darkness, you can harness light. It’s two sides of the same coin. Now…close your eyes.” 

Terra did as he was told, feeling Riku stepping around behind him. 

“Clear your mind and focus on the binding nature of the darkness within you.” 

Terra raised his hands, concentrating and feeling a subtle tingle in his fingers. He knew if he opened his eyes he would see the beginnings of darkness twirling between his fingertips. 

“Now, concentrate on transforming that power to light.” 

He was just about to give up, the strain beginning to make his ribs and head ache with fatigue, when he felt the tingling sensation around his fingers warm. 

“Open your eyes, Terra.” 

He did, and instead of the dark purple shadows of darkness, his hands were radiating with a pale yellow glow of light. He started to smile, but the light became so bright it started to burn, and without realizing what he’d done he cast a large burst of energy straight into the side of the castle, shattering a window. 

“Oops,” he mumbled, still staring at his hands. 

“That was excellent, Terra!” Riku exclaimed, grinning up at where the pulse had hit the castle, just as Even’s head appeared in the crater of the broken window. 

“WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU DOING? I’M GOING TO-“

“And…I think that concludes our training for today,” Riku said. “Same time tomorrow?”

The two of them ran for the castle, Even’s screams following them as they laughed, Terra stopping just before they went inside. 

“Riku…the things I told you…Aqua doesn’t know,” he explained, Riku watching him thoughtfully. “And…I don’t think I’m ready for her to know yet.” 

“It’s not my story to tell, Terra. Your secret is safe with me.”


	8. Chapter 8

Aqua couldn’t sleep. She had struggled to sleep ever since her return from the dark realm, but lately she had been doing it out of exhaustion after all the training Yen Sid had been directing her and the younger recruits through lately. Riku had been granted time away to train Terra separately, his inability to wield a Keyblade obviously weighing on him. 

She’d barely seen him in almost a week, he and Riku staying out into the night and her training the young students on her own. A quick glance at the clock told her that everybody was likely to be asleep at this hour, so a quiet walk about the castle wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

She told herself the common room was a natural starting place, but of course in her heart she was hoping Terra would be awake and willing to keep her company. She was surprised to find the couch empty, no sign of his cocoon of blankets and pillows. She first checked Riku’s room, finding he and Sora curled on the same mattress and stifling a giggle as she silently backed back out of the room. Not training then. In half an hour, Aqua had checked nearly all the places Terra could be-the kitchens, showers, observatory-there was only one place she had not yet checked. 

She knew she’d found him before she even rounded the corner, the rhythmic thud causing her to sigh in relief that he hadn’t actually run off somewhere. He was standing behind a body-length punching bag, jabbing and kicking with such a ferocity he didn’t even notice her until she was practically beside him. 

“Can’t sleep?” he asked without stopping, delivering three quick punches successively with matching grunts. 

“I should ask you the same,” she answered, taking a closer look at him while he moved. His shirt was off, something he never did these days thanks to the scars crossing his chest, and he was dripping with sweat, telling Aqua he’d been at this for hours now. More concerning, however, were the dark circles beneath his eyes. “When was the last time you slept?”

He looked like he was going to stop, only to deliver three more punches in quick succession. “Did you come down here to lecture me?”

“No,” she answered, hurt at the accusatory nature in his voice. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in days. I missed you.” 

He did stop then, although he didn’t look at her. He started to unwrap the bindings on his hands, clearly finished for the time being. 

“How’s training with Riku going?” She asked, watching Terra’s back as he walked over to where his shirt was draped over a chair. He shook it out and pulled it back over his head, Aqua sighing inwardly at the loss of the view. 

“I still haven’t gotten it back, if that’s what you’re asking,” he replied, falling to the floor into push-up position and starting to crank some out. If she hadn’t seen him do it a million times before, she would have been startled, but this harkened back to their old days. 

“Why are you so defensive?” she asked, watching him complete twenty push-ups effortlessly before putting a hand behind his back and continuing. 

“I’m…not…defensive…” he replied, speaking with each upward motion of his body. 

Aqua sighed and turned her head, listening to him breath in time with his motions. 

“Why did you decide to train with Riku?” she asked, the burning question making its way out of her mouth before she could stop it. Terra finally stopped, turning over and lying on his back on the floor to catch his breath. 

“Is that what this is about? Why not? He’s a master.” 

“Yeah, not like you know any of those,” she deadpanned, rolling her eyes. 

“Are you jealous?” he asked, sitting up and pointing at the towel next to Aqua and catching it as she threw it to him. 

“I’ve known you since we were kids, Terra-you’ve never been afraid of taking orders from me before.” 

“And I’m still not,” he replied, wiping his face with the towel and tossing it aside. 

“Then why didn’t you ask me?”

“I would have thought that was obvious,” he answered, lying down on the bench-press and lifting the weight easily to begin. 

“Because he’s fallen to the darkness before?” she asked, watching Terra push the bar up and down with ease. “I spent twelve years in the dark, you know.” 

“Not with Xehanort in your heart,” he argued, starting to slow. “Riku’s had the same experience, and I have twenty years of darkness to expel from-“

“Twenty?” Aqua asked, Terra’s form immediately faltering as he attempted to correct himself. 

“Twelve…I meant…twelve,” he sputtered, Aqua coming over to stand behind him. 

“Terra…” she warned.

“I meant twelve! I…” he grunted as Aqua held a hand out, magically pushing the bar back down on to his chest-not enough to injure him seriously, but enough to make him talk. 

“It’s not what you meant.” 

“It…is…I…Aqua, stop…” he pled, trying frantically to push the weight back up and not managing to make it budge an inch. 

“Tell me the truth, Terra!”

“Can’t…breathe…” 

She lifted the weight back on to the rack with her magic, staring down at Terra with the fiercest expression he’d ever seen. “What…did you mean…’twenty years?’”

Terra sighed, letting his arms hang limp at his side as he tried to recover. “Your timeline…” he panted. “Is assuming…I stayed…in one time.” 

“Start to make sense, Terra. We were gone for twelve years.” 

“You were. Ven was. I wasn’t,” he replied, looking up at her meaningfully. He finally managed to sit up, his shoulders aching in protest. “Xehanort…went back to find his younger self. He was making plans, explaining how he would need all these empty vessels.”

“We know that,” Aqua agreed, shaking her head. “And we destroyed all the vessels so he couldn’t come back.” 

“Well, sometimes when he would go back, he’d…stay a while,” Terra explained, closing his eyes as painful memories came flooding back. Memories of the dark room of his mind-of him clawing and scratching in an attempt to escape, only to be pushed back further. “I don’t know how he did it, but he would travel through time…and I had to go with him.” 

“How long?” Aqua asked, her eyes brimming with tears that she willed not to fall. “How long were you in there?”

“I don’t know, exactly,” he answered honestly. “But it wasn’t like it was for you-time moved normally, we just were in different times. I think…I think it was around…”

“Terra…”

“Twenty years, Aqua. I was stuck inside my own body for twenty years. And somehow they took place in twelve of yours, okay?” He shouted the last few sentences, Aqua finding herself taken aback by how frightening his raised voice could be. 

“I didn’t say anything because everyone kept throwing around the same number!” He continued, voice still raised. “Aqua walked for twelve years! Ven slept for twelve years! Well, I didn’t, okay? I was gone a lot longer than that. I was stuck inside my own head, and he’d only pull me out long enough to shut me up, then he’d put me back in again and make me watch what he did. Now, do you want to tell me how you’re going to train that out of me, _Master_?” He spat the last word acidly, and Aqua felt the first tear slip down her cheek. 

“I didn’t know…” 

“I know you didn’t,” he replied, voice coming down but still erratic. “How was I supposed to tell you? Ienzo kept going on about it, and everybody kept wondering why I was so clumsy, and why everything wasn’t going right back to normal, but it was because I was terrified, Aqua. I lived for all that time thinking I would never get out.” 

He stood up, running his hands through his hair and turning away from her. “The only thing that kept me sane was thinking about you and Ven. About getting out. And one time…one time I thought…I thought I had made it…” 

“You were there…in the dark realm…” she supplied, remembering the brief encounter. 

“I thought I had made it out,” he explained, voice cracking somewhere in the middle of the sentence. “One second I was stuck, and the next…I heard your voice. I thought…I thought maybe I had died. It had been so long, but we both…we both looked the same.” 

“How? How did you find me?”

“I don’t know. Now I know he was just trying to figure out where you stashed Ven, but it was really me for a few minutes before he took back over.” 

Aqua couldn’t imagine-how it must have felt to have the slightest glimmer of freedom only to have it snuffed back out in moments. 

“Now I’m back…and I’m completely…USELESS,” he shouted the last word, going back to the punching bag and hitting it hard enough that the entire unit came detached from the ceiling. 

“You’re not useless, Terra,” Aqua replied, following him but keeping a safe distance in case he decided he needed to lash out again. “You’re crucial to us understanding all this. To keeping the world order.” 

“Maybe I don’t want to keep the world order anymore, Aqua. Maybe I don’t want to be a Keyblade Master anymore.” 

“That’s not true,” she answered firmly. 

“How would you know?”

“Because a ten-year-old boy told me once that being a Keyblade Master was all he’d ever dreamed about,” she practically whispered it, but she knew he heard her. “And I shared that dream with that boy.” 

“We’re not kids anymore, Aqua,” he replied, voice back to a much quieter register. “The Master is gone. It’s just us.” 

“But we have each other, and Ven, and the others,” she argued. “We’ll get through this, Terra. Just like we’ve gotten through everything else.” 

He finally turned around to face her, and Aqua nearly broke down at the sight of tears in his eyes. She hadn’t seen Terra cry since he was small. 

“I’m tired, Aqua. I’m so, so tired.” 

She was there to catch him when he finally let his head fall on to her shoulder, her arms wrapping around him the best they could as he cried quietly. She could feel his sobs against her shoulder, but couldn’t hear anything over the sound of her own heart beating. 

Somehow, she convinced Terra to follow her back to her room and into her bed, where she covered him up and closed the door quietly, Terra already snoring softly into her pillow before the door even clicked. A night in a real bed would do him good, and if she had to field comments about whose bed it had been in the morning, she’d offer to explain anything over training to shut them up. 

She made her way to the kitchen, surprised to find Yen Sid there and she immediately bowed in greeting. “Master, how can I help you this morning?”

“I hoped to find you alone this morning, Master Aqua,” he drawled in that low, resounding voice he used for everything. “I find the training of our young recruits to be rather satisfactory, would you agree?”

“Yes, sir, they’re all coming along wonderfully.” 

“In that case, I believe a celebration is in order,” he explained. “Morale tends to drain in times such as these, and the town of Radiant Garden and Ansem the Wise wish to express their thanks to the many warriors who have defended the worlds.” 

“That…sounds excellent, sir.” 

“You hesitate?”

“I’m just not sure how up to throwing a party I feel, Master,” she explained, already feeling the weight of the day despite the early hour. 

“I will take the young recruits off-world today to gather supplies, but rest assured that the townsfolk will handle the rest.”   
“Master Yen Sid?” Aqua called just as he was making his way to leave. 

“Something troubles you, child?”

“How are Terra, Ven, and I all still the same age as when we left?” she asked before her brain could convince her it was a bad idea. “We were gone for twelve years,” she continued, in her head amending her statement for Terra. “Why aren’t we all twelve years older?”

“I suspect at heart you are,” he mused aloud. “However, you were contained within a realm where time does not exist, Ventus was suspended in animation, and Terra was not outwardly present to age. Therefore, while all of your minds existed for twelve additional years, your bodies did not.” 

“So…it’s like we never left?”

“I think you and I both know that that is far from the truth.”

Aqua always felt slightly awkward whenever speaking with Yen Sid, so she was pleased when they finalized their plans and he left, leaving her alone to begin the process of making breakfast for so many hungry people, and to think about all the information she’d been given in the past twenty-four hours.


	9. Chapter 9

It was almost eleven before breakfast was finished, all the kids sitting around the large kitchen table picking at food and looking through their gummiphones. 

“Aqua, where’s Terra?” Ven asked, still picking at his eggs while he watched Lea play a game on his phone. 

“He’s asleep in Aqua’s room,” Lea answered for him, and it was a toss-up as to whose face was more confused-Aqua’s or Ven’s.

“He had a rough training session yesterday, we traded for the night,” Aqua lied easily to Ven, rounding on Lea. “How did you know where he was?”

“No reason,” Lea lied quickly, fooling nobody. He was just about to say something else when everybody heard Terra’s voice echo through the hallways, practically rattling the glasses on the table.

“WHERE IS THAT RED-HEADED BRAT?”

“Lovely breakfast, Master Aqua,” Lea said, standing up and beating a hasty retreat for the door. “But I really should get started on my-“

“Oh no, you don’t,” Aqua called, stopping him with magic just as Terra burst through the door. 

Aqua didn’t know it was possible to experience so many emotions at once-at first she wanted to laugh, but the murderous look on Terra’s face was enough to stifle that fairly quickly and turn her amusement into wonder. 

Terra’s hair was bright red. And not just bright red, but styled into long spikes in order to look exactly like Lea’s. 

The look on Terra’s face was obviously not enough to stop everyone, as Ven immediately burst out laughing. “Oh my god, Terra, what did you do?”

“WHERE IS HE?” Terra shouted again, finally spotting Lea stuck near the back door by Aqua’s magic and heading toward him. 

“Terra, calm down, no need to hurt him,” Aqua scolded, although to the casual listener it sounded like a faint giggle came out. 

“I’m not gonna hurt him, I’m gonna kill him,” Terra explained as he got about three feet from Lea before he froze in place, Aqua having hit him with a spell as well. “Aqua, let me go.” 

“You said I needed to work on my magic, old man,” Lea teased once Terra was still. 

“Watch it, Lea, or I’ll let him go,” Aqua warned. Lea blanched slightly, but didn’t turn from Terra.

“Change. It. Back.” Terra muttered through clenched teeth, staring at Lea in such a way that the others were expecting Lea to catch on fire any moment. 

“Okay, okay, fine, although I must say, I certainly favor this look,” Lea whined, muttering some sort of incantation before Terra’s hair returned to normal. 

“Lea, I’m giving you a ten-second head start and then I’m letting him go,” Aqua warned, Lea suddenly feeling his limbs loosen once more. 

“Please, he’s not gonna-“

“Nine. Eight…” 

Lea ran for the door, the others giggling at the sound of his retreating footsteps. Aqua waited the requisite ten seconds and let Terra go, the man immediately shaking out his limbs. 

“I hate that little twerp,” he grumbled, accepting the cup of black coffee Aqua handed him and pulling a piece of hair down in front of his face to make sure it was brown again. 

“He’s just trying to push your buttons since you annihilated him during training,” she laughed, the others starting to make their way out and about. 

“Well, it’s working,” Terra grumbled, calming slightly as the attention focused away from him. “Sorry I slept in.”

“Not a problem,” she replied, sitting on the counter as Ven and Naminé began to clear the dishes from the table. “Did you actually get some rest?”

“A little, between the nightmares,” he admitted. “Maybe you can cast Sleep on me later and I can get a few hours.” 

“Terra, did you hear?” Ven asked, Terra turning to where Ven was stacking plates in the sink. “We’re going off-world today.” 

“Why? What’s wrong?” Terra asked quickly, turning to Aqua in concern. 

“Nothing’s wrong-we’re having a party!” Ven explained, grinning madly. “To celebrate!”

“A…party?” Terra said the word the same way he would say something disgusting. 

“Yen Sid said he wants to boost morale,” Aqua explained. “And the townspeople want an excuse for lots of food and fireworks.” 

“So we’re going off-world today to buy supplies,” Ven added. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you something cool to wear.” 

“Same goes for you, Aqua,” Naminé added, giving Aqua a shy smile. “I won’t let the boys pick a dress for you.” 

“Thanks, you two, but you better get going or you’re going to get left behind,” Aqua told them, watching them run off. 

“Is this a good idea?” Terra asked, but whether it was about the party or about Ven picking out clothes for him, Aqua wasn’t sure. 

“I think a celebration would be good for everyone right now,” she said with a nod. “We need something for everyone to be happy about.” 

The two of them walked to the large bay window where they watched all the young Keyblade wielders and Naminé board the Gummiship, and then as it rose and flew away. 

“So…everyone’s gone for the entire day,” Terra sighed, looking out the window wistfully.

“Yep. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Aqua asked, waiting for Terra to look at her before raising her eyebrow suggestively. 

Terra raised his own brow before a knowing look lighted on his face. “Yes. _Oh, god_ yes.” 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“I think I might explode,” Terra whined, holding his stomach as he laid back on the kitchen countertop he was currently perched upon. 

“That was a good showing, but I’ve seen you eat more,” Aqua laughed, finishing off her final cookie with a sigh. 

All around them were the remains of nearly everything in the kitchens, the two of them tickled pink by the magic that kept the stores fully stocked permanently. They had eaten nearly everything they could get their hands on-Terra doing the cooking and Aqua the baking-just like old times. 

“I think my stomach shrank when I was inside the old coot-he only ate the weirdest stuff anyway, so that felt really good,” Terra groaned, pushing away what was left of a bowl so he didn’t have to look at it anymore. 

Aqua grinned, swinging her feet back and forth from the opposite countertop. Not only had they been able to enjoy a meal without having to fight off eight ravenous teenagers, but they’d actually been able to talk and laugh-almost like the night before had never happened.   
She had filled him in on Yen Sid’s assumption that none of them had aged, and Terra had groaned in relief at the information.

“So this party the town is throwing,” Terra sighed, closing his eyes and putting a hand behind his head. “Should we have a talk with the kids about sneaking off to dark corners?”

Aqua nearly snorted into her glass of milk, dunking another cookie before answering. “As much as it seems the contrary these days, we’re not their parents.” 

“Certainly could have fooled me,” Terra laughed, although he put his hand over his stomach right after, clearly deciding that was a bad move. 

“They’re young, but they’re not _that_ young,” Aqua assured him. “It’s not like we need to give them _The Talk_.” 

Terra immediately started giggling again. “We could scar them for life and do it like Master Eraqus did.” 

“Oh my god, you couldn’t look at me for weeks!” Aqua laughed, this time fully snorting and nearly dropping her glass. 

“That’s because he kept describing everything! In detail!” Terra laughed. “I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me, right then.” 

“Try being a girl and having the same conversation with him!” She argued, although her face was red from laughing. 

“I couldn’t focus on our lessons for the rest of the week,” Terra laughed. “I kept thinking he was going to say something about it in front of you, and then I really would have died.” 

“Do you remember the time when you snuck into my room and got stuck in the tree trying to get back out again?” she asked, watching as Terra shook his head and put his hands over his face. 

“Master yelled at me so bad I thought about just living in the tree instead of coming down,” he admitted. “Then we had to have another talk about how it was inappropriate for a ‘young man’ to call on a ‘lady’ so late.” 

Aqua giggled again. “If he only knew how many times that ‘lady’ snuck into that ‘young man’s’ room because she was afraid of the thunder.” 

“Wouldn’t have been so bad if you weren’t such a blanket hog,” he mused, Aqua throwing a cookie at him. 

“Please…no more food.” 

“Hey guys!” Ven’s voice came from the door, and without turning around Terra could tell that the boy had stopped for a moment to take in the mess of the kitchen. “Wow, what did you guys eat?”

“Everything,” both Terra and Aqua answered at the same time, sending them both into simultaneous peals of laughter. 

“You guys are weird,” Ven said, shaking his head. “Terra, I put your clothes in the extra closet in Riku and Sora’s room. And Naminé put all your stuff in your room, Aqua.”

“Thanks, Ven. Did you guys have fun?” Aqua asked, hopping off the counter and putting her glass in the sink. 

“We got so much stuff-and the people in town are already setting stuff up! It’s going to be awesome! There’s going to be food, and dancing, and-“

“Since when are you excited about dancing?” Terra asked, not moving from where he was spread out across one of the counters. 

“Since…I don’t know. It’s just exciting,” he stammered, looking down at his feet. 

“Would this have anything to do with you making goo-goo eyes at Naminé this morning?” Aqua asked, Terra’s head snapping to the side quick enough to catch Ven’s face turning red.

“What? No! No, she’s just a friend!” Ven stammered, Terra starting to giggle beside them. 

“ _Ven’s got a girlfriend_ ,” Terra sang softly, earning him a punch straight to the stomach from Ven, which he thankfully dodged or there may have been a mess to clean up. 

“She is _not_ my girlfriend!” Ven argued, just as Terra finally decided to get up and brush the crumbs from the front of his shirt. 

“Fine, loser.” 

“Jerk.”

“Brat.”

Ven lunged for him but was too slow, Terra putting him in a headlock and Ven’s arms swirling around uselessly while Aqua sighed and started to clean up the kitchen.

“ _Boys._ ”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is another short interlude chapter. This scene really warmed my heart to write. :)

The common room had remained where everybody gathered in the evenings after training and dinner, the entire group choosing to unwind while watching television or a movie until each of them gradually went off to bed. It was there that most of them were sitting the evening of the off-world visit, Terra and Aqua barely awake as the rest of the group lounged. 

“Um…Terra?” Ven’s voice was quiet when he came up to him, barely audible to anyone other than the two in front of him. 

“What’s up, Ven?” he answered, letting out a long yawn before turning to the boy. He perked up a bit when he noticed the look on Ven’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Um…nothing,” Ven answered quickly, looking around to see that none of the others were paying attention to him. “Can you…can you help me with something?”

Sure, of course,” Terra answered, getting up and following him out of the room. Aqua watched curiously, but decided whatever it was, Terra could handle it. When they didn’t return in ten minutes, she decided to go check on them. 

“Ven probably just clogged the toilet again,” Lea chuckled, looking much too smug about the fact that Kairi was leaning against his shoulder as she slept. 

“Better watch it Lea, or I’ll clog the toilet with your head,” Aqua warned, earning a laugh from Lea before she left the room. For a brief instant, she was worried that Lea had been right, because she could hear Terra’s voice coming from the bathroom. 

“Okay, now go from top to bottom,” she heard Terra say, his voice slightly muffled by the partially-closed door. 

“Like this?” She heard Ven ask, and she waited just outside the door to listen for a moment. 

“Right. Go slow around your chin so you don’t cut yourself.”

Leaning forward, Aqua could just barely see into the bathroom, where Ven was standing directly in front of the mirror, his face covered in white foam. Terra stood just behind him, neither of them noticing Aqua. 

“Now go all the way down your neck, but be careful, because the skin there is really thin,” Terra instructed, watching Ven like a hawk. 

Aqua grinned as she watched them, her heart warming as she remembered finding Eraqus giving Terra the same lesson so many years ago. Terra turned, just barely catching Aqua’s eye and smiling before turning back to Ven, who was concentrating so hard he still hadn’t noticed her. 

“Is that good?” Ven asked, turning his face to admire his work in the mirror. 

“Not bad,” Terra agreed. “The hardest part is getting it close without giving yourself razor burn. After shave helps-it’s not just to smell good.” 

Aqua tiptoed away from the door, deciding she didn’t want Ven to get embarrassed by her witnessing the moment. She snuck back into the common room, finding everybody either asleep or already in their own rooms. She woke up Sora-who was snoring on a random chair-and shooed him off to his room before sitting on the couch to wait for Terra to return. When he did, Ven followed close behind.

“Thanks Terra, I think I’m gonna head to bed now. Goodnight Aqua!” 

“Goodnight, Ven,” she called, pretending to be none-the-wiser of what had taken place. Terra flopped on to the couch beside her, his cheeks betraying just the slightest blush as he smiled at Aqua. 

“Our little Ven-Ven is all grown up,” he teased, the two of them chuckling quietly. 

“That could have been the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Aqua admitted. “What possessed him to want to shave? I haven’t seen a single hair on his chin.” 

“I think it’s this little crush of his,” Terra replied with a shrug. “I’m just glad he did it on his own and didn’t wait until he had a sad mustache like me.” 

“You were so proud of that hair,” Aqua laughed. “All six of them.” 

“Shut up,” Terra laughed, pushing her arm before letting another huge yawn escape. 

“You have to be exhausted, do you want my bed again?”

Both of them blushed slightly at the implication, Terra shaking his head. “No, I’m fine. You were going to help me, remember?”

“Yeah, of course,” she agreed, waiting for him to get comfortable. “Goodnight, Terra.” 

“Goodnight, Aqua,” he yawned again, closing his eyes as Aqua pressed a hand to his head.

“ _Sleep_.”


	11. Chapter 11

The day of the celebration brought an electricity to the castle and its inhabitants the likes of which hadn’t been seen since right after their final battle. The town had been abuzz for days setting up extravagant decorations and booths, and the young Keyblade wielders had been talking nonstop about what they would wear, eat, and do at the festivities. 

Terra had poured himself into his training with Riku so much that he rarely had time to converse with the rest of the group, Aqua and Ven especially missing his presence at meals and in the evenings. Aqua could see a slight lightening to his expression when she did see him though, so she thought maybe the training was having a good effect. 

It was still early when she and Terra were helping Ienzo hang a string of lights when Sora came running up to them, a brightly colored tie in his hands. 

“Terra, do you know how to tie a tie?” he shouted up the ladder where Terra was standing. 

“Unfortunately,” Terra answered, securing the lights and making his way down the ladder, brushing his hands off on his pants. 

“Guys! He knows!” Sora shouted down the hall, a line of bashful boys seeming to come out of the woodwork, including Ven. 

“Ven, I’ve shown you before,” Terra sighed, raising an eyebrow while Aqua giggled behind them. 

“Yeah, but I always get the knot all funny,” Ven argued. 

“Fine, go see if anybody else needs help-I’ll meet you all in the common room in ten minutes.” 

“You’re becoming quite the group dad,” Aqua teased, watching as Terra climbed the ladder to hang another string. 

“Well, I am over forty, after all,” he teased back, yelping as Aqua pinched his thigh on the way down from the ladder. 

Aqua had to suppress the urge to take a picture as Terra conducted a seminar in the common room to every boy in the castle-including Ienzo-on how to properly tie a Windsor knot. She was surprised when he had produced his own tie, only to watch him put it away again in the closet he’d been using in Sora and Riku’s room. 

“I don’t think I’ve seen you in a tie since Eraqus made us learn how to dance,” she mused, remembering how sore her feet were after days of Terra stepping on them. 

“I think he gave up on making me dress that way around the same time he gave up on me ever learning how to dance,” he admitted, handing Aqua another string of lights as she was now the one on the ladder. “Honestly, I haven’t even looked at what Ven got for me to wear-I’m starting to get a little concerned.” 

“Now that you mention it, I never looked at what the girls picked out for me either,” she admitted, finishing what she was doing and admiring her handy-work. “We could be showing up in clown suits for all we know.” 

“Come on, Aqua-your shorts don’t look _that_ bad,” Terra teased, expertly dodging the paper lantern she threw at him. “Are you…leaving with everyone else to head into town?” He asked, his entire demeanor changing slightly as he handed her back the same lantern she had thrown at him. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted, hanging the lantern and reaching for another one. “I hadn’t really thought about it. Why?”

“No reason,” he answered far too quickly. 

“What?” Aqua asked, not taking the next one he handed her and forcing him to look up at her. 

“I could…walk down with you?” he suggested, shrugging his shoulders like his offer was nothing special. 

“Are you asking to pick me up, Terra?” she teased, thoroughly enjoying the way he was practically squirming. 

“Trying to,” he admitted, catching her eye for only a second before looking down again. 

Aqua descended the ladder, taking the lantern out of his hand and setting it on the table where the rest waited to be used. 

“That sounds great. Meet you out front at eight?” He grinned as he nodded, his face turning a fiery red as she lifted up on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t be late.” 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why was he so nervous? Terra was pacing back and forth in the entrance hall, wondering why he felt this way about spending time with his best friend. They’d hung out like this thousands of times-this wouldn’t be any different. He tugged at his tie-he’d never liked the way they made his neck feel-but he had to admit the outfit Ven had picked out was actually pretty good for him. 

Being so tall and broad, suits never looked right on him. Ever since he was a teenager, his arms always felt too long and the jackets never fit properly, no matter how tailored they seemed to be. So when he found no jacket in the mix that Ven had bought, but rather a vest, he happily thanked his lucky stars. Ven had picked out a grey shirt to go with the dark pants and vest, although Terra had opted to roll up the sleeves to his elbows, making him feel less stiff. The tie was an afterthought, but he felt like it would be hypocritical to teach all the boys how to tie one without wearing one himself. 

Letting out a deep breath through puffed-out cheeks, he looked up to check the giant clock face before he saw her standing at the top of the stairs. 

“You looked deep in thought, I didn’t want to interrupt.” 

Aqua was in a royal blue dress that came just down to the middle of her thighs-slightly longer than her usual shorts. The top looped elegantly around her neck, leaving her shoulders exposed, although Terra could tell she was slightly uncomfortable by the way she had her arms crossed in front of her. She’d styled her hair differently, the light blue tresses framing her face to show off that she actually wore a little make-up-something Terra had never seen on her before. 

“You…you look…” he stammered, staring with both eyebrows up. 

“Silly? I feel kind of like that,” she admitted, walking down the steps carefully-which was when Terra noticed she was wearing silver heels. 

“I was going to say amazing,” he finally managed to get out, offering a hand as she stepped down. 

“Speak for yourself,” she laughed, making a scene of looking Terra up and down. “You clean up nicely.” 

“Don’t get any ideas,” he sighed. “After tonight I am back in tee shirts and sweatpants.” 

“That makes two of us,” she laughed, taking Terra’s hand and curling her fingers through his. “Let’s go, everybody’s going to be wondering where we are.” 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The central square of Radiant Garden had been completely transformed, and the people milling about all seemed to have smiles on their faces as the lights reflected off the decorations and the beautifully tended surrounding gardens. Tables had been set up surrounding what had been turned into a large dance floor, music blaring at just a high enough volume that people could dance but still talk and be heard. 

Food was piled high on the row of tables nearest the castle, and Aqua giggled as she watched Roxas and Sora filling their plates with huge grins on their faces. Kairi, Naminé, and Xion were all on the dance floor, happily dancing and laughing as Riku and Ventus watched from the side. Lea was no where to be seen, and Terra made a mental note to blame any wrong-doing for the night on him. 

Terra found himself relaxing as he and Aqua got themselves something to eat, the two of them falling into easy conversation about their training, Terra actually yammering on and on about everything he’d been working on with Riku, and Aqua was so glad to hear him sounding heartened again that she simply listened. 

“Sorry, I’ve been talking a lot-how is it with the kids?” he finally said, their plates empty and pushed off to the side of the table where they were sitting. 

“No, it’s great, Terra,” she assured him, reaching across the table to put her hand on top of his. “I’m glad your training is going so well. It’s good to see you happy again.” 

“I _feel_ better,” he admitted, turning his hand over experimentally and inwardly cheering when Aqua didn’t move hers. “I think I finally have it all under control. I just need to get my Keyblade back.” 

“It’ll happen,” she assured him, running a thumb over his upturned hand. “Hey, come on, let’s dance.” She hopped up from the table, using the hand that was already in Terra’s to pull him up as well. 

“That’s…probably not a good idea,” he argued, shaking his head and digging his heels into the ground. “Don’t you remember how bad I was at dancing?”

“This isn’t ballroom dancing, Terra,” she laughed, pulling him further on to the dance floor. “Just relax.” 

Terra couldn’t think of any other arguments, and the only thing he got when he glanced over to where Riku and Ven were standing was both of them giving him goofy grins and two thumbs up. He stopped cold where Aqua led him, still holding one of her hands awkwardly and looking about as flexible as steel. 

“Terra, you look horrified,” Aqua joked, rolling her eyes. “It’s not that bad. We’ll talk here just like we were talking there. But while moving. Here-“ she took his hand that she was holding and placed it on her waist, letting go to put hers on his shoulder and holding his other hand in hers. Terra swallowed hard, watching everything she was doing like part of him might explode any minute. “So, Terra…tell me about training.” 

“What?” he asked in confusion, looking up from where his hand was on her waist at her face. 

“Tell me about training-what are you guys doing all those long hours?” she asked again, neither of them moving yet. 

“Oh…um…well, usually I start with m-meditation,” he faltered slightly as she began stepping, Terra nearly tripping in an effort to follow her lead. He looked down at his feet, only to have her let go of his hand and use her finger to bring his chin up. 

“Ah-ah-up here, just talk to me like normal,” she instructed, continuing to lead him in a simple step while she listened.

“I start with meditation,” he continued, now looking right at her instead of where his feet clumsily stepped. For someone who could move like a ninja during a sparring match, he felt like his legs were made of lead right now. “…you know, so my mind is clear, and then we move on to trying to harness the light.” 

“And how’s that going?” Aqua asked, genuinely interested and not in need of focusing on her feet at all. 

“Great, actually,” he admitted, his movements growing easier the more he talked. “Although I need to avoid Even for…the foreseeable future. I kind of made his window explode a few weeks ago.” 

“Magic was never your strong suit,” Aqua laughed, Terra gasping in surprise when she did a little turn and he managed to lead her without faltering. “But your dancing has definitely improved.” 

“Having the right partner, I guess,” he huffed, letting out a breath of relief. He let himself take a look around at everyone else, the sun setting allowing the townspeople to let their hair down a bit more with the later hour. He caught a glance of two people dancing toward the edge of the floor, and he nudged Aqua to look as well.

Ven was dancing, albeit rather awkwardly, with Naminé. The smile on her face showed that she was completely at ease, but Aqua and Terra knew Ven well enough to know that he was absolutely terrified, his arms stiff as boards as he held Naminé’s waist at arm’s length and tried to smile at whatever she said. 

“Is that what I look like right now?” Terra asked, watching Ven wobble back and forth while Naminé talked. “Because you’re allowed to make fun of me if I look like that.” 

“You’re a little smoother than that,” Aqua laughed, surprising Terra even more by leaning against him and resting her head on his chest. “But not much.” 

They waited until Ven and Naminé rotated enough for Ven to be facing them, Terra giving him a thumbs up while Aqua waved. Ven did seem to relax a little after that, and the two “grown-ups” had to laugh at the way he grinned back at them. 

“Come on, let’s go for a walk-I know this isn’t exactly your scene,” Aqua sighed, holding each of Terra’s hands and swinging their arms back and forth. 

“Are you sure? Because we can stay…” 

“I got a dance, I’m happy,” she admitted, the two of them setting off to walk the lit streets of the town. They had been walking for about five minutes when they heard someone shout behind them. 

“Hey! You! You’re the one who broke my window!” Even was still in his white lab coat, and he looked absolutely livid at the sight of Terra, who looked down to Aqua with a look of mild concern. 

“Can you run in those shoes?” 

“I guess we’re going to find out,” she laughed, following as Terra made a break for it down an alleyway, Even screaming like a madman as he chased them. 

Terra and Aqua probably could have lost him if they were in normal clothes and not laughing hysterically, but then they turned a corner and nearly ran headlong into Lea, who was leaning against the door to a storage shed smoking a cigarette. 

“GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT, YOU HEATHENS!” Even’s voice shouted from somewhere beyond the alleyway, Lea looking up with a look of interest. 

“Sounds like my old pal, Vexen,” he drawled, moving to the side and holding the door to the shed open. “Go on, I’ll cover for you.” 

Without another word Terra and Aqua stepped inside, Lea managing to shut the door and lean back against it just as Even turned the corner. 

“Where did they go? Did you see them?” he asked Lea, head turning every direction as he looked up and down the alley.

“See who? Got something in your craw again, Vexen?”

“My name is Even, _Axel_ ,” Even spat. “And you must have seen them-they had to have run right past you.” 

“I’m telling you, I didn’t see anyone, old man,” Lea answered nonchalantly, looking completely disinterested as he blew his smoke directly in Even’s face. “Maybe you should keep better track of your victims. I mean experiments.” 

Even huffed and went off in the other direction, Lea waiting until he could no longer hear the footsteps before turning to open the door for Aqua and Terra to come out. They brushed the dust off their clothes from the dark of the shed, Terra lingering for a moment on what to say to Lea. 

“We’re even,” Lea spoke for them, shrugging his shoulders as he tossed his cigarette to the ground and stomped it out. “He went back toward the party. You might want to go the opposite way. Got it memorized?” He turned and left, heading back toward the castle. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

After their brief brush with the death that would have been Even, they wandered the streets in silence for a while, Terra finally looking over to where Aqua appeared to be deep in thought. 

“Uh-oh, you’re thinking,” he sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets as they walked. 

She smiled as she snapped out of her reverie, looking up to where they could actually see the stars this far from the lights of the central square. 

“Did you think this was where we would end up? Teaching a bunch of kids how to fight?”

“I don’t know, I was never one to think much about what came next-just about the here and now,” he admitted with a shrug. “I guess I knew I’d leave the Land of Departure one day, but when I first came here I never thought I’d be living here.” 

“Is it what you want?” she asked, still looking up at the sky thoughtfully. 

“For now,” he sighed, thinking over his response in his head. “A lot of things that used to matter a lot don’t seem to matter as much any more. Is it what you want?”

“I want a lot of things,” she chuckled, the two of them turning a corner and seeing the edge of the square, far fewer people left milling about than when they had left. 

“Aqua, you’re the strongest-willed person I know,” Terra laughed. “If there’s something you want, you just take it.” He noticed that Aqua had stopped walking, and when he turned around to face her the expression on her face had changed from wonder to confidence. 

“Okay, I will then,” she said firmly, taking two quick steps to close the space between them, holding both sides of Terra’s face, and kissing him squarely on the mouth. It was short, Terra not even having time to react, his hands still shoved in his pockets and his eyes frozen in half-shock. She took a half-step back, grinning shyly, yet triumphantly. “There’s one thing to mark off the list.” 

Terra took a moment to regain his composure, then began looking up and down the surrounding streets purposefully. 

“What are you doing?” Aqua asked, her smile faltering slightly. In her mind she told herself he was embarrassed and was making sure no one had seen, but her heart was praying it was wrong. 

“I’m just going to kiss you back, and I’m making sure there are no teenagers around to suddenly interrupt with a crisis,” he explained, doing one more quick sweep before reaching out to grab her around the waist, pulling her back to him. 

Aqua felt her heart flutter just before he kissed her this time, her mind cleared of any fear that had been there before as she reached up to lock her arms around the back of his neck. 

This kiss was so much different than the frantic one they had shared in the Badlands-that moment feeling like more than a lifetime ago. This time they were slow, the burning need after having found each other replaced with the want to just be here, together, now. Aqua was vaguely aware that they were close enough to the square for people to see them, but even when she heard a familiar voice calling to them she couldn’t be bothered to care. 

“Hey! There are children present, you know!” They heard Lea shout, followed by the distinct laughs of Ven and Roxas. Aqua felt one of Terra’s hands leave her waist and she thought he was going to stop, but instead out of the corner of her eye she saw him flip his middle finger at the group, followed by even more uproarious laughter from Ven, Roxas, and even Lea. They didn’t know how much longer the three younger boys watched them, but they couldn’t possibly care less.

When they finally came up for air, the space between them still felt like too much, Terra resting his forehead against Aqua’s as he ran his hands up her arms and bare shoulders. 

“You’re shaking…are you cold?” he asked, voice husky and lower than usual. 

Aqua shook her head, giving him a positively brilliant smile. “No…not at all.” 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was hard to tell how many of their group were back as Terra and Aqua passed through the hall of rooms, all of the doors to the rooms shut and the hallway quiet. 

“At least they didn’t seem to bring the party back here,” Terra mused as he walked Aqua back to her room, him having not let go of her hand since he tentatively grabbed it as the fireworks closed the celebration in the square. They reached her room, both of them awkwardly standing as they released hands, Aqua opening her door with a shy grin. 

“So…just…going to bed then?” she asked, feeling shy all of a sudden despite how close they’d been mere minutes before. 

“I’ll probably wait around, make sure everyone gets in okay,” he sighed, wondering if he dared check the rooms that were already quiet. 

“Ever the vigilant father-figure,” Aqua teased, lingering in her doorway and biting her lower lip. 

“Might watch some TV,” he sighed with a shrug, hands in his pockets again. “There’s a documentary on tonight about wild rabbits that seemed vaguely inter-“

Aqua steeled herself and grabbed Terra’s tie, using it as a lever to yank him into her room, shutting the door with her foot before slamming him against the closed door and standing on her tiptoes to kiss him. She was smiling into the kiss at the yelp of surprise he had made, Terra barely having time to take his hands out of his pockets before she had him against her bedroom door. 

Terra was going to make a witty remark about the merits of nature documentaries, but then Aqua’s hands were in his hair and her tongue was in his mouth, and he forgot how to talk. Aqua kicked off her heels, which had the unfortunate effect of making her even shorter next to Terra, but she was finding the tie he was wearing to be very handy to pull him down into the kiss. 

“Lock the door,” Aqua whispered with her lips still against Terra’s, his breath coming out in shaky pants, his eyes closed as he nodded. He turned around to lock the door, making it a point to take a deep breath before continuing, willing his heart to not beat out of his chest. He took another breath and turned back around, just as Aqua’s dress fell to the floor and pooled around her feet.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter earns the "M" rating.

At any other time, Aqua would have laughed at the expression on Terra’s face-equal parts shock and amazement. But as it was, Aqua had never felt more vulnerable, standing literally and emotionally bare in front of her best friend in the world. 

“Say something,” she whispered, her voice shaking with nerves as he stood frozen before her. 

“You’re beautiful,” he mumbled, Aqua feeling her entire body flush with the feeling of his eyes on her. “You’re…the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“Terra…I love you,” Aqua said before she lost the nerve, watching his eyes snap up to meet hers. “I…I don’t expect you to say it back right now, but I just needed you to know.” 

He made a face like he couldn’t believe what she was saying, and she began to feel self-conscious before he stepped forward and reached for one of her hands, bringing it to his lips and kissing her knuckles gently. 

“Aqua…I’ve loved you since I was twelve years old,” he breathed, smiling and looking at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re my best friend. Of course I love you too.” 

She felt tears well in her eyes, but he was there before they could fall, holding each side of her face in his enormous hands, his thumbs running along her cheekbones as he kissed her. The ferocity from before was gone, this kiss full of meaning and emotion, like he was trying to convey every moment that she hadn’t realized that he was head-over-heels in love with her. 

They both laughed breathily as they broke apart, Terra letting his hands drop to Aqua’s bare waist. 

“Terra…for god’s sake, take your clothes off,” Aqua laughed, wiping the one tear that managed to fall off her cheek.

“Bossy,” he teased, his face red but smiling as he unbuttoned the vest and pulled it over his head, starting on the buttons of his shirt. At some point during that process Aqua decided it was taking him far too long, pushing him back against the wall and pulling his shirt up out of his pants, dragging her hands up his toned chest. 

“I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” she grinned, finishing the buttons and pushing his shirt off his shoulders, Terra pulling the tie un-done and tossing it across the room with no regard for where it landed. 

“And I’ve been wondering what you were hiding under those belts for a long time,” he teased back, hands skating delicately along Aqua’s back, like he was waiting for permission to touch her. 

She took one of his hands and pulled him toward her bed, Terra following silently as he kept his eyes locked on hers. Aqua sat down on the bed, Terra getting the idea as he leaned down to kiss her again, leading her down with one hand behind her head as he climbed on top of her. His eyes were closed, and Aqua could feel how tense he was in the way he held himself stiffly above her. She wrapped her hands around the back of his neck and pulled him down, both of them gasping at the feel of their bare chests coming together. 

“Aqua…I’ve never…” Terra started, Aqua shaking her head and pulling him back down before he could even finish. 

“I know. Me neither,” she told him, knowing perfectly well that Terra had just as little experience as her. “It’s okay. I want it to be with you.” 

He hesitated for a moment, and then it was like she could feel something in him snap, his face coming back down to kiss her with a new kind of intensity that she hadn’t seen out of him before. 

This was more like it. Terra’s mouth dropped from her lips to the side of her neck, Aqua making a sound that seemed to spur him on even more. Deciding she needed to level the playing field a bit, Aqua gathered her courage and grabbed Terra by the belt, plunging one hand down the front of his pants and touching him. 

She couldn’t have asked for a better reaction really, Aqua relishing the choked sound that came out of Terra’s mouth, a shudder wracking his entire body as he hovered above her. 

“Is this okay?” She asked, giving him a gentle squeeze and forcing herself not to smile at the small whine he elicited. He nodded quick enough that she could practically hear his brain rattle inside his head before he dipped back down to kiss her again, Aqua using her free hand to guide one of his to the side of her breast. “It’s okay…relax.” 

“Just…trying not to embarrass myself here,” he mumbled shakily, eyes still closed as their foreheads rested together. 

“Hey…” Aqua removed her hand from his pants, taking each side of his face and forcing him to open his eyes. “You don’t need to impress me,” she told him, brushing back a piece of his hair that had fallen in his face. “I want to be with you because I love you. First times are first times for a reason, okay?” She seemed satisfied with his nod, and he let out a deep breath through his mouth before she gave him a gentle peck on the cheek. “Turn over.” 

She turned them around so he was lying flat on his back on the bed, Aqua straddling his hips before leaning down to kiss him, hands splayed on his chest. He seemed to be slightly more relaxed after her encouragement, and she grinned against his lips as he gave her butt an experimental squeeze. She repaid him with a deliberate grind of her hips against his groin, and was rewarded with a low rumble from the back of his throat. 

Shifting herself back, she moved down to kiss the side of Terra’s neck, grinning to herself at the shiver that she felt through his body before she moved to his chest, thoroughly inspecting each plane of his chest with kisses. She kissed every single scar she came across until she got to just above his heart, when she turned to lay her ear against his chest, listening to the steady thrum of his heart. She could hear his shallow breaths above her, and they culminated in a gasp as she sat up once again, beginning to unfasten his belt. 

“I can stop if you want me to,” she assured him, Terra watching her every move with fascination, his hands shaking lightly against her hips. 

“I don’t want you to stop,” he panted, his expression one of near worship as she moved to unzipping the fly, shifting so he could wiggle out of his pants. Finally, he was completely bared beneath her, Aqua taking a moment to appreciate the view. 

“After all these years I finally know why you wore those huge pants,” she teased, raising an appreciative eyebrow as he turned pink all the way down his torso.

“Shut up,” he huffed, his laugh falling away as she moved herself above him, positioning herself with one final adjustment before lowering herself down on him, Aqua gasping silently while Terra made a noise that was definitely louder than he intended. Aqua put a hand over his mouth and laughed, even the simple movement of that enough to elicit another noise from beneath her hand, her own eyes fluttering closed at the new sensation. 

Terra let his head fall back against the pillow, Aqua able to see his pulse dash wildly in the veins of his neck as she moved atop him, starting slow and developing a gentle rhythm. It took a moment to get used to this sudden feeling of fullness, but she was surprised at how quickly her body adapted, and pain gave way to pleasure almost immediately. She moved again, getting a gasp out of Terra who seemed to be so far gone at this point he was in his own universe. His hands were clasped so tight to the sides of her hips she was sure she would have bruises in the morning, but at the moment she wanted more-wanted his hands on her and over her and wanted him closer despite being about as close as it was possible for two people to be. 

“Touch me, Terra,” she whispered, taking his hands in hers and moving them up her abdomen and over her breasts, and from the look on Terra’s face she could tell he was thinking about a million things at once to keep himself from spontaneously combusting on the spot. She let her eyes close as she sat up straight, her hands on top of his on her body as she moved again, this time hitting just the right spot to make an involuntary noise of her own. 

She honestly thought everything was perfect, and had absolutely no idea how much better it could be until Terra started moving his hands on his own, his shallow breaths sending shivers straight to her core. Suddenly, one of his hands moved down to touch her _just there_ , and in an instant it was like someone was setting off fireworks in front of her eyes. She felt her entire body shudder and halt, and if it hadn’t been for Terra’s other arm around her back, she probably would have fallen off the bed entirely. She panted hard for a few seconds, Terra’s voice finally bringing her back.

“Did…did you just…?” Terra’s voice sounded ragged and completely disheveled, although there was a slight edge of bewilderment to it. 

“Um…I think so, yeah,” Aqua muttered, her limbs suddenly feeling too heavy for her body. “That was…unexpected.” 

“Yeah?” He mumbled, hands still shaking against her hips. “Do you…want to stop?”

She was quiet for a moment, almost laughing at the pleading look in Terra’s eyes. 

“No,” she answered, and the word was barely out of her mouth before Terra surged up to kiss her again, turning them over deftly and snapping his hips forward hard enough to make them both cry out. 

“Sorry,” he stammered, stopping and letting out a breath. 

“No…” Aqua mumbled, running her hands through his hair and tugging on two handfuls of it. “Do it again…” 

Terra’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before he repeated the motion, both of them groaning before Aqua pulled his face back down to hers, little aftershocks making her toes practically curl as Terra moved above her. He only had to repeat the move a few more times before he too was shuddering to a halt, Aqua kissing the side of his face as she felt him tense and still within her. 

He stayed hovering above her for a moment, seemingly frozen in time before it was like all his strength was sapped at once, his arms giving way as he fell on top of her, his chest heaving and heart beating hard enough that Aqua could feel it against her. 

“You okay?” Aqua whispered, her own voice still breathy as she combed her fingers through his hair. He let out a small whimper that she took to be an affirmative, his breath hot against her shoulder where his head rested. They laid in silence for several minutes, only the sound of their breathing slowly returning to normal filling the quiet of the room.

“I can’t feel my legs,” he mumbled after a while, both of them immediately laughing before he rolled over, Aqua following him and resting her head in the crook between his neck and shoulder. 

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” She asked quietly, running her fingers gently over his chest, drawing little circles on his skin.

“It must be a good thing because I don’t remember what bad feels like right now,” he mumbled, his voice slurred almost like he was drunk.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she laughed, kissing his chest where she lay. He shifted just a bit so he could look at her face, eyebrow raised. 

“Did you?”

“I would have thought that was obvious,” she laughed again, sighing as she wound her legs between Terra’s. The covers on the bed were in shambles, hanging off in every direction. Their clothes littered the floor, and Aqua knew she should hang her dress up before it got wrinkled, but there was nothing she wanted less right now than to move from this particular spot. 

“I imagined that a lot in the past several years…” he admitted, his fingers absent-mindedly playing with a lock of Aqua’s hair. “It was even better than I imagined.” He laid still for a few more minutes before shifting to look at her once more. “Want to do it again?”

“I’ve created a monster, haven’t I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It always bothers me in fics when first times are glorious and perfect. Hopefully this one captured the awkwardness while still being cute. :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more short interlude chapter before the end.

Ven yawned as he walked back down the hall toward all their rooms, stretching his arms above his head as he approached Aqua’s door and knocked three times. He heard Aqua say something quietly, and then the rustling of her bedding before she called out.

“Uh…come in?”

He opened the door and stared at her sleepily where she lay in bed, sitting up against the headboard with the covers up to her chin. 

“Morning Aqua,” Ven started, scratching his head. “How do you make coffee with the machine in the kitchen?”

“Uh…press the power button, put the coffee in, and press the button for the size cup you want,” she answered, her voice a little higher than usual but Ven not reacting in the slightest. 

“Okay, thanks,” he replied, yawning again as he turned to leave. “Morning, Terra.” 

Terra flipped the covers down off his face where he had been hiding, apparently unsuccessfully.

“Morning, Ven.” 

Ven gave a sleepy wave before turning and shutting the door again behind him.

“Well…there’s that cat out of the bag,” Aqua sighed, Terra raking his hands over his face. 

“I meant to get up early and go back into the other room.” He dropped his hands over his head, looking up at the ceiling. Aqua settled back into bed, rolling over and resting her head on Terra’s shoulder. 

“Maybe this is better than keeping it from him,” she mused, letting out a deep sigh. “He would have figured it out eventually-he’s a smart kid.” 

“Maybe,” he agreed, though his voice still sounded unsure. “Guess I should go make sure they aren’t burning the kitchen down. I’m really hungry, anyway.” 

“Can’t imagine how you worked up such an appetite,” Aqua teased, watching as Terra got out of bed and searched the room for his pants. He grinned as he pulled them on and gathered his other clothes, tossing Aqua’s dress from the previous night over her desk chair. 

“You coming?” he asked, taking a breath and deciding not to put on his dress shirt from the night before. That was a big step for him, as he hadn’t let any of the others see his scars since he’d been back. 

“I think I’ll go take a quick shower first,” she sighed, considering dragging him right back to bed. “Now get out of here before I don’t let you leave.” 

He chuckled and stepped over to the bed to drop a quick kiss to her forehead, turning and leaving before he also made the decision to stay. He stopped to change his clothes in Riku and Sora’s room, both of them still fast asleep and unaware of him even entering. 

Lea and Ven were the only ones in the kitchen, both eating modest amounts of food and sipping from mugs of coffee. Terra was thrilled to see that they had apparently managed to make breakfast without destroying the kitchen, and better yet, there was some left. He filled a plate a little more full than he usually would, bringing it to the table and sitting across from Lea. 

“Your mother and I are very proud of you, son,” Lea joked, raising his mug to his lips as Ven giggled beside him. “Now that you’re a man maybe I’ll take you out for a tattoo and fishing.” 

“Both of you can kiss my ass,” Terra replied, digging into his food and finding it hard not to smile at the two sitting across from him. 

“Does that mean we’re not getting the juicy details?” Lea leered, Ven surprisingly giving Terra a very similar look. 

“Do you really want to hear the details, Ven?” Terra asked, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, well, Aqua’s very good at-“

“Okay, okay! Stop, I get it. Please don’t say anything else,” Van begged, putting his hands over his ears like that could block out any of the images that may be forming in his mind. 

“I want to know what she’s good at,” Lea replied with a sly grin, leaning over the table. 

“Maybe when you’re older,” Terra teased, putting another forkful of food into his mouth. 

Aqua came into the kitchen about ten minutes later, Terra handing her a cup of coffee as she sat down beside him. 

“Sorry about this morning, Ven,” she commented, not even bothering to pretend that Lea didn’t know exactly what they were talking about. 

“It’s fine, really,” Ven answered, waving her off. “Honestly, I’ve been watching you two dance around each other long enough that its nice to finally see you together.” 

“Yeah, how does it feel to be the last ones to know you were crazy about each other?” Lea asked, Terra reaching a hand out and knocking his coffee cup, effectively making Lea splutter coffee all over himself. 

“Feels pretty good,” Terra replied with a wide grin, watching Lea flounder as he dripped.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terra ducked and attacked with the long staff, knocking Riku’s weapon from his hands and kicking to take his feet out from under him, pinning him with his staff held against his neck. 

“Nice,” Riku commented, taking Terra’s offered hand to get back up. “You seem on it this morning. Have a good time at the celebration last night?”

Terra panted and stretched, looking at Riku’s face to see if he was poking fun or not. Surprisingly, he saw no teasing there, just genuine interest. 

“Yeah, it was great,” he replied, grinning to himself at how much of an understatement that was. 

“Well, whatever it was, it’s done you well,” Riku repeated. “I think you’re ready.” 

“Ready for what?” Terra asked, tossing the staff to the ground where they had been working. 

“Ready to summon your Keyblade,” Riku answered simply, making it sound as if it didn’t hold the kind of weight it did for Terra. “You’re ready, Terra. You’ve controlled the darkness in your heart, harnessed the light, and dealt with tremendous odds. You’re ready.” 

Terra exhaled shakily, nodding uncertainly at Riku. He closed his eyes and held his hand out, feeling the familiar tingle of light dancing across his fingertips. 

Then they heard the screaming.


	14. Chapter 14

Riku and Terra arrived back to the castle to nearly the entire group standing at the entrance, Sora and Ven running up at the same time from the opposite direction. 

“It’s Xigbar,” Sora explained as he bent over with hands on his knees, obviously having run at a full sprint the whole way. “He’s in the square, and he’s destroying everything.”

“Who’s Xigbar?” Terra asked, his entire body thrumming with adrenaline. 

“Braig,” Aqua told him, the two sharing a meaningful look with each other. They had had their own run-in with the ex-Organization member, and he was no push-over when it came to a fight. 

“What’s he want?” Kairi asked, Lea stepping forward with an actual serious expression.

“He’s a wild card. His loyalty has always been with whoever had the power, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to get on top.” 

“We have to take him down,” Roxas piped up, looking ready for a fight. 

“You all don’t need to,” Aqua argued. “Me, Terra, and Riku can handle it.” 

“We’ve been training for weeks,” Xion argued. “The nine of us can take on one guy.” 

“How well did that work for you when you all took me on?” Terra asked, remembering his own fight with Braig and how it had been no walk in the park. 

“We can do it, Terra,” Ven argued. “We’re ready.” 

“Okay…but we’re not taking a brute strength approach. I have an idea,” Terra added with a nod. “Lea…that trick you did with my hair. Want to do it again?”

“You know it,” Lea answered, looking tickled.

“Can you change other elements of my appearance too?”

“I think so…? What are you getting at?” Lea asked, eyebrow raised. 

“You’ll see. Let’s go, we’ll meet you guys there,” Terra pulled Lea and started off away from the square, Aqua reaching out to grab his arm. “It’ll be okay. I promise.” 

Aqua nodded, letting go as she watched him and Lea run off.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Sora said it was Xigbar, he left out the fact that it was Xigbar _and_ a small army of Heartless, and without Lea and Terra, it was everything the other seven could do to keep them all at bay. Aqua finished slaying what had to be her thousandth Heartless, doing a quick visual scan to make sure everyone else was holding their own. Kairi and Xion were handling a bigger Heartless together, while Ven, Roxas, and Sora were standing with their backs together to fend off anything that came their way. 

“Aqua, on your left!” she heard Riku shout, just as he flew over her left shoulder, a Heartless exploding right next to her ear. “What is this about? He’s just standing there.” 

Sure enough, Xigbar was pacing back and forth on the roof of a nearby building, watching the proceedings like he was waiting for something. 

“I don’t know…I don’t like it,” Aqua responded, shaking her head. She looked around, her anxiety rising with every second that Terra and Lea weren’t there. 

In the next moment, another figure entered the square…

…a figure that couldn’t possibly be there. 

Xehanort.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Xigbar grinned and snapped his fingers, every single Heartless disappearing in a flash. 

“There you are…knew a little action would draw you out of the woodwork,” Xigbar leered, jumping to the square and walking to the center, the group retreating back to where Aqua and Riku were standing. 

“What do we do?” Sora asked. “Do we go after him?”

“No, he’ll just summon the Heartless back,” Riku replied, shaking his head. 

“Is that…” Ven stammered, looking in worry at where Xehanort had stepped into the square. “It can’t be.” 

Aqua’s heart felt like it had fallen to her toes. Terra stood before them, but instead of their Terra, it was the imposter with silver hair and yellow eyes. He watched Xigbar’s approach with a sinister grin, turning to look at the group around Aqua for just an instant. 

And in that instant, his eyes flashed a familiar blue. 

“It’s Terra,” Aqua whispered, Ven nearly sobbing in response. 

“No! No, it can’t be!” He shouted, misunderstanding before Aqua grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Ven! I mean, it’s _really_ Terra,” she explained quietly, Ven calming as he began to understand. 

“It was foolish to come here alone,” they heard Terra say, although he was lowering the pitch of his voice to sound more like Xehanort had when he’d possessed Terra’s body. 

“Who said I’m alone?” Xigbar asked with a raucous laugh, snapping his fingers again to produce a swarm of Heartless around him. 

“An impressive parlor trick,” Terra replied blandly, appearing unimpressed by the swarm as Xigbar snapped them away again. “You’re late.” 

“Well, you didn’t give me a timeline when you told me to come back,” Xigbar laughed. “This was the best I could do after that butt-kicking we took at the Badlands.” 

Aqua gasped, wondering for a moment if she had been wrong. 

“Speaking of which, how do I know that’s you and not Terra?” Xigbar asked, drawing his weapon and pointing it at Terra’s face threateningly. 

Terra looked on, not even blinking at the weapon in his face. Without a word, he turned toward the group watching them, pointed at Ven, and sent him flying backwards with a burst from his hand. 

“Could Terra execute such magic?” he asked lazily, Xigbar laughing as he watched Ven fly through the air and land on his back. 

“Guess not, good seeing you Mister Master.” 

They shook hands, Aqua’s stomach dropping as she watched Riku run to Ven. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her heart ached as she thought of Terra stuck once more inside his own body. 

“So, where do we go from here? You told me we would win this thing!” Xehanort smiled, glaring at Xigbar before beginning to walk a circle around him. As he walked, he allowed his yellow eyes to roam the surroundings, his eyes locking at one point with Aqua’s.

“There are no winners-only truths,” he said, Aqua’s body stiffening. Those words. Xehanort’s eyes left hers, but finished the sentence that rang in her ears. “For when equal powers clash, their nature is revealed.” 

Those weren’t Xehanort’s words-they were Eraqus’. It _was_ Terra, and now Aqua knew exactly what his plan was for this situation. Those were their Master’s words just before they sparred the day of their Mark of Mastery, and she remembered exactly what she had done to take on Terra that day. 

She waited while Terra led Xigbar in a circle, eventually getting his back to Aqua. 

“You know, this speaking in riddles thing was always pretty annoying,” Xigbar whined. “Why can’t you ever just say what you mean?

“Because there are so many things you do not know,” Terra said, speaking in the voice that was not his own, smiling cryptically at Xigbar. 

“Oh yeah?” Xigbar laughed, holding up his arms with a disbelieving look on his face. “What don’t I know?”

Suddenly, Terra’s hair faded back to brown, his eyes remaining yellow for only an extra second before flashing back to his own blue. He was still grinning slyly at Xigbar, whose smile was fading. 

“A distraction when you see one.” 

Xigbar had a brief instant of looking confused before he was enveloped in the magic from Aqua’s Keyblade, her concentration focused from where she stood directly behind Xigbar. 

“I can’t hold him myself,” Aqua cried, struggling with holding Xigbar still. Terra threw his hand out to his side, and without hesitation his Keyblade appeared in his hand. He smiled in wonder at the feel of it back in his hand, but the feeling was short-lived as he rushed to help Aqua. Holding his Keyblade high in front of him, a blast of light shot from the end, and in an instant, Xigbar disappeared in an explosion of stars.

“Whoa,” Aqua beamed, letting her own Keyblade disappear as she watched where Terra stood, his Keyblade still aloft. “Where did you learn that?”

“Just a little something I picked up,” he panted, the magic clearly having taken a lot out of him. The rest of the group ran up then, Ven in the lead. “You okay?” Terra asked him, letting his arm fall to the side but not letting his Keyblade go just yet. 

“Yeah, I didn’t feel a thing! How did you do that?”

“Light,” he replied in explanation. “I’ve never actually managed that one successfully. Glad it worked.” 

“And how about that make-up job, eh?” Lea had finally reappeared, holding his hands out expectantly. 

“You did good,” Terra sighed, pulling a lock of his hair in front of his face to make sure it was brown again. 

“Your Keyblade,” Aqua said finally, smiling at Terra and pointing down to where he still held it in his hand. He made it disappear and reappear a few times, his body showing obvious signs of relief despite his exhaustion. 

“Yeah…I guess that works again,” he mumbled, just before he collapsed. Luckily, Aqua was there, able to read him well enough to know he was going down and at least being able to break his fall with magic, letting him down softly. 

“It was the light magic,” Riku piped up, pushing through to the front of the group. “I’ve never seen any that strong.” 

“Is he gonna be okay?” Ven asked, worry evident in his voice. 

“I think so,” Riku nodded, combining his magic with Aqua’s to lift Terra from the ground and float him toward the castle. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terra opened his eyes slowly, breathing deeply the familiar smell of Aqua’s bed. He rolled over to his back, blinking a couple times before sitting up quickly, a panic seizing him before he felt hands on his shoulders.

“Hey! Hey, you’re okay!” Aqua assured him from where she was lying beside him. Her eyes were red from sleeping, and her hair was sticking up in a way that told Terra she’d been asleep for a while.

“Where…?” he gasped, looking around in confusion. 

“He’s gone…you…blew him up or something,” Aqua explained, putting a hand on either side of Terra’s face. “Riku said it was the strongest light magic he’d ever seen, and I think it just took everything out of you.” 

Terra calmed slightly, his heart still beating wildly but his eyes looking less panicked than before. 

“We brought you back here and let you sleep,” she explained, one hand gently caressing one of his cheeks. “You’ve been out for more than a day.” 

He let out a deep breath, closing his eyes in relief as he let his head fall forward, resting his forehead against Aqua’s. “You’re safe…” he mumbled. 

“Yeah, we’re all okay, thanks to you,” she replied with a warm smile, kissing him on the lips lightly, his face softening like he had forgotten that kissing was now a thing. 

“Sorry if I scared you,” he mumbled, his exhaustion not completely gone. 

“I trusted you,” she assured him, letting her hands fall to his shoulders. 

“What time is it?” he asked, looking outside at the darkness beyond the window. 

“It’s late,” she explained. “Everybody’s asleep, but I can wake them up if you want.” 

“No,” he huffed, holding her arm before she could move. “Just…just stay here for right now.” 

She sighed, looking like she was glad that she didn’t have to either get out of bed or leave his side. 

“Go back to sleep, Terr, you look like death warmed over,” she teased, brushing hair out of his face as he laid back down. 

“Love you too.”


	15. Epilogue: Six Weeks Later

“Keep your head up, Ven!” Terra shouted, watching as Ven and Roxas sparred. It was difficult when those two were paired up, their nearly identical looks making it difficult to tell them apart when they were in the thick of it. Terra seemed to be one of the only ones able to tell them apart when they were fighting. “You lower your head, you lower your defense!”

Aqua turned back to watch her own pairing, Lea and Kairi going head to head. Lea was definitely going easy on her, which was probably why Kairi managed to deliver a strike that knocked Lea off his feet and had him on his back in seconds. “That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t underestimated her, Lea.” 

“I didn’t underestimate her, I underestimated gravity,” he whined, getting up and brushing the dirt off his clothes. 

Aqua shook her head and made eye contact with Riku, the two of them sharing a look before he called to the entire group. 

“All right, everybody in-that’s enough for today,” he called, each sparring partnership stopping and bowing to each other before gathering around Riku. 

“Good job today, guys,” Riku called, everybody panting as they caught their breath from their training. “And I have news for you all. We’ll be bringing in a new Keyblade Master to assist in your training from here on out.” 

Everybody seemed to perk up at this information, quiet conversation breaking out between a few of them as they speculated who it would be. 

“Fortunately, he won’t have to come far,” Riku continued, grinning as he locked eyes with Aqua again. “Terra…”

Terra’s head snapped up, his brow furrowed in confusion. 

“Congratulations on attaining the rank of Master.” 

Everybody started clapping and cheering, Terra continuing to look on in complete bewilderment. 

“Terra! You did it!” Ven shouted, jumping up and down beside him as Terra finally cracked a small half-smile. 

“Congratulations!” The echos rained down from all the others around him, and Aqua smiled as she watched Terra blush and shake Riku’s hand. 

“All right, everybody go wash up, dinner’s on me tonight,” Riku called, everybody filing away and leaving Terra standing gobsmacked with Aqua. 

“You knew, didn’t you?” he asked her, looking more amused than upset that she had kept the secret. 

“I _may_ have known something,” she admitted, stepping toward Terra and wrapping her arms around the back of his neck. 

He grinned brightly, leaning down to kiss her. He laughed again, his smile contagious as Aqua laughed with him. 

“You deserve it-I’m so proud of you.” 

They kissed again, Terra pulling Aqua tight against him into a hug when they were finished. 

“Come on, _Master_ ,” she teased, letting go of him and walking back toward the castle. 

“Wait,” she heard him shout, and when she turned back Terra had his Keyblade twirling around in one hand. “Rematch? I think last time I was at a bit of a disadvantage.” 

Aqua grinned deviously, turning her body to completely face him and summoning her own Keyblade. 

“You think I’m going to go easy on you just because I’m sleeping with you?” she asked, pleased when she saw the blush in Terra’s cheeks. 

“You’d better not,” he replied, trying to act unaffected by Aqua’s comment. “Because I’m not going to go easy on you. Not tonight either.” 

This time the tables turned, Aqua feeling her own cheeks pink up in response to his comment. 

“All right, _Master_ , let’s go,” she replied, bowing to Terra.

He bowed back, giving his Keyblade another twirl and squaring up to her with a grin. 

He opened with a predictable charge, Aqua dodging it easily with a well-placed cartwheel and knocking him in the back so he tripped forward. 

“Please Terra, we’re not ten anymore,” she chided, following with a combo that he countered easily, knocking Aqua back with the force of the blow. 

Terra was stronger, but he was no match for Aqua’s speed, and she dodged easily when he came at her again, this time making a point of pretending to yawn as she recovered. 

“Very funny,” he groaned, cracking his neck and lunging after her again, Aqua hitting him with a quick Thunder spell that had him yelping like a girl. 

“Oh, you want to use magic?” He warned, Aqua cringing slightly as she felt herself lifted from the ground and dangled upside down. Terra’s magic had grown exponentially, and she was amazed everyday with the leaps and bounds he’d come in the last few weeks. 

“Okay! Okay! Let me down!” Aqua laughed, Terra watching her dangle with a smug expression on his face. 

“I don’t know…I can see right up your shirt this way,” he teased, standing directly below her and pecking her on the mouth before she felt herself whipped back around and sat gently on her feet, Terra looking smug as ever. “No more magic?”

“No more magic,” she agreed, the two of them squaring up one more time. Terra continued to make the first moves, Aqua always able to cartwheel out of the way before he could strike. Finally, fed up with his continued use of the same move, she stopped with her back to him after knocking him over once again, hearing him get up from the ground behind her. 

“God, Terra, what’s gotten into you? You’re not even-“ She turned around, freezing in place as she saw that he hadn’t gotten up from the ground after all. 

He was on one knee, and out in front of him he held a box sheltering a ring, at it’s center a beautifully cut blue diamond. 

Aqua remained frozen, her eyes trained directly on the ring in Terra’s hand. 

“I’m not good at speeches,” he said quietly, still slightly out of breath from their sparring. “I just know that I love you, I’ve loved you since I was a kid, and I’m going to keep loving you forever.”

“Terra…” Aqua’s voice quavered, her hand going up to cover her mouth. 

“Will you ma-“ 

“Yes,” she interrupted, not even giving him a chance to finish the word. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” 

He beamed, the kind of smile that was reserved only for Aqua in their most private moments. He stood up and placed the ring on her finger, Aqua squealing as he lifted her up and spun her around before kissing her again. 

“What did she say?” They heard Ven’s voice shout from far away, and looking down the path toward the castle they saw the entire group peeking around one of the buildings there, clearly having watched the entire ordeal. 

“I said yes!” Aqua shouted, laughing at the way everybody cheered from down the path, Ven actually jumping up and down with joy. 

“Did they know about this?” She asked Terra, happy tears rolling down her cheeks. 

“They _may_ have known something,” he repeated her words from earlier to her, laughing as she slapped his chest playfully. 

“You are such a jerk,” she laughed, letting her head fall against his chest. 

“But you love me anyway.” 

“But I love you anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really fun to write, and I hope fun to read as well. I love reading comments, so let me know if you liked it!


End file.
